Time Marchs On
by Kizmet
Summary: AU from No Good Deed, trying to incorporate 616's Mekanix: A Legacy Virus story centering around Lance and Kitty.
1. Time Marches On

**Time Marchs On** Disclaimer: They belong to Marvel, I'm just playing, but I promise to put them back when I'm done. 

Lance trudged along the railroad track. He kept walking, away from the scene of the accident, away from the X-Men's accusing glares. Like Kitty and Jean he'd pushed his powers to the limit to contain the damage. Naturally he was as far from the Boarding House as he could get and still be in Bayville. 

It was a hell of a long walk home and he was too fucking tired to keep his thoughts distracted. Ever since Pietro moved back in with them Lance had stopped thinking, well really thinking anyway. Instead he focused on all the petty irritations in his life: Pietro's latest demand. Graffiti from some anti-mutant group sprayed across the walls around town. His housemates acting like a bunch of lunatics. Magneto acting like they were worthless. The X-Men in general. There was always something to be sullenly angry about, but right now he just didn't have the energy to keep inflicting paper-cuts even if they were the only things keeping him distracted from the pain of having his heart torn out. 

"Nothing but a hood." Kitty was the one person who he'd really tried to impress. The only person whose approval he'd truly sought. And he was never going to win it. Because she was right. Because no matter how hard he tried he was always going to screw up eventually. Because his temper would always get the better of him and make him do something stupid. Because he sure as hell wasn't any sort of hero. 

His life was never going to be his own. He was too fucking stupid to keep from being manipulated. Mystique, Kelly, Magneto and his henchmen, now Pietro, it was never going to end. Standing in Kelly's office the day after the fight outside the PTA meeting he'd sworn he was never going to be used again. Not fifteen minutes later he'd stared into cold, demonic eyes and known that if he didn't give in to Magneto's demands he was going to watch Todd die and something in him broke, because as long as he cared they could always use him. 

Damn it, why couldn't he stop caring? That was all he wanted anymore. He just wanted to be numb to his whole crappy life. He'd thought it was working for a time. For the last two months he'd done nothing, not really: sleep, eat, feed the smoldering bitterness that suffocated every other emotion, nothing real. He couldn't remember the last time he'd smiled let alone laughed. 

Then it happened. Wanda's powers exploded in a burst of rage. The subway derailed. He looked out the window and saw a sparking wire and broken gas line. The eminence of death had sent adrenaline shooting through his veins. Unlike bitterness it burned with a clear bright flame that illuminated rather then concealed. 

He wanted to be the sort of person who could have walked right past the other passengers. Who wouldn't have even noticed how they were frozen with fear. He wasn't though. He'd stopped and offered them the promise of hope. He'd taken the time to give them the push they needed to get them to save themselves. He'd taken the time to help them as if his own life wasn't the biggest disaster of all. Then, as if that wasn't enough, that woman had called out for help. Her plea had frozen him in his tracks as the rest of the passengers streamed past him to safety. 

Why did he have to keep proving to himself that his heart was still soft? That it could still bleed? Why couldn't she… why couldn't everyone have acted like they did when the X-Men saved them? Why couldn't they have reacted with fear and revulsion? Why couldn't they have given him the raw material he needed to shore up the cracks in his defenses? 

Instead they… she reacted with gratitude. He didn't want it. He didn't want his walls pulled down. He didn't want people giving him reasons to care. He never wanted someone to make him feel like he could be a good person again. It hurt too much when they realized the truth. 

And maybe that was the real reason he let Pietro manipulate him into that stupid fake heroics scheme. He'd known all along that they'd get caught and even if they didn't it kept him from fooling himself. He was just a hood. That was all he'd ever been and all he ever would be. Yet when the inevitable happened, when their plans backfired and turned into a huge disaster, he had stayed to help fix things instead of saving his own hide. 

Lance sat down on the side of the road and laughed. Laughed till he was choking on it. Laughed without the slightest sign of joy. Laughed at himself, at his pathetic inability to choose a side. Too worthless to be a hero, too soft to be a villain, just nothing. Laughed because if he didn't laugh he'd cry. 

The sound of a very familiar vehicle pulling to a stop beside him was icing on top of an unmitigatedly miserable day. "Yo Lance, why didn't you come with us?" Todd asked. "You could have gotten hurt. Leave that kinda crap to suckers like the X-Geeks." 

Lance got up and shoved Pietro out of the driver's seat without a word. He wished he could make himself believe he was angry with them for coming back to look for him, for acting like friends when he didn't want to care about them anymore. He knew the truth was he was furious with them because they'd run off and left people to die of their reckless stupidity. Weren't they the bad guys? Why should he care? 

Over the next few days everything went back to the way it had been. Their brief fame ended and the infamy that followed didn't last long either. After a couple of weeks it was like it had never happened at all. Nothing had changed. No one had learned anything. Lance tried to go back too. He tried to slide back into the painless living death of the last few months. Until one night he found Todd's collection of new paper clippings spread out on the table and forgotten. 

He smiled at the first one: The four of them standing outside of the subway entrance caught between being dumbfounded and hamming it up for their fifteen minutes of fame. The snapshot of Toad in mid-air, scarfing up bees and being called a hero for it almost made him laugh. The third one though… it crushed any fond memories he had of their stunts. He looked at the picture of Blob catching the gargoyle he'd knocked off a nearby roof and all he could think of was. "What if that thing had shattered when my powers hit it?" Fred wouldn't have been able to catch all the pieces. The smaller fragments would have rained down on the crowd like bullets. The next picture was worse. It showed Fred holding the back of the run-away bus while Pietro posed heroically with the mother and child he'd snatched out of harm's way. The guys on the bench hadn't been part of their plan. They'd been so lucky Fred had been able to stop the bus before it plowed into that bench. It had been Lance's powers that sent the bus careering out of control and it had been dumb luck he hadn't killed someone that day. Lance picked up one last clipping. A picture of Kitty trapped halfway through the barrier in the crocodile pen, her expression caught in a brief moment of fear as she realized her powers weren't going to save her, not with Wanda around. 

Lance laid the three clippings out on the table side by side then he went to the pile of discarded papers beside the couch and carefully tore out one last article. The one about the train collision their final stunt had caused and the catastrophe that had barely been averted. He placed that article over the other three and crumpled up all the other stories about the Brotherhood's 'heroics'. 

After that Lance walked up to his room. He stuffed some clothes in a duffle bag then came downstairs got in his jeep and drove away. At the city limit sign Lance stopped the jeep and turned to look back at Bayville for a few minutes. Then he started the engine again and kept on driving until long after the city's lights had been lost in the distance. 

****** ****** ****** 

**1 ½ years later **

_To: The Brotherhood, Todd, Fred, Pietro and Wanda (aka Toad, Blob, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) _

I feel like I owe you guys some sort of explanation or maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic because I turned twenty today. 

I won't say I'm sorry I left. It was something I just had to do, but I'm sorry about how I did it. 

You guys, plus Tabby and Kitty, were the first real friends I ever had. When Mystique brought me to Bayville all I knew about people was how to use them and how I got used. During those times when Mystique and Magneto ditched us I felt like we actually were a family. A twisted, insane, highly dysfunctional family, but you get the picture. 

I want you to know I didn't leave because I was mad at you guys or anything. 

When we first got together (Sorry Wanda, before your time) it seemed like there were only two choices if you were a mutant: You either followed Magneto or you followed Xavier. That kind of black and white, little kid thinking didn't hold up very long. All of us, Brotherhood and X-Men stood together against the Juggernaut. In the end it turned out that the only side Mystique was on was her own, she betrayed everyone in the end. Even Magneto and Xavier stood together against Apocalypse for a moment. Not so black and white after all, huh? 

When I look back I remember what you said, Todd, when you came to Asteroid M after us. We asked you which side you were on and you said the side that lives. For me it eventually got to be less about survival and more about being able to live with myself. By the time I left I was already way too old to say "I didn't think of that," when the consequences of my actions got out of hand. The truth is I've never wanted to hurt anyone who hadn't hurt me first. I couldn't justify being angry at the whole world anymore. I couldn't keep pretending that it was okay to let someone like Magneto use me. 

I just wanted you to know that I'm alive and happy and hope you are too. 

Your Friend: Lance (formerly Avalanche) 

The postman checked the address again then looked back at the dilapidated, boarded up old building. There was no return address on the envelope. With a shrug he pushed it through the mail slot then turned and walked away. 

****** ****** ****** 

**5 years after that **

"Better hurry up and get changed." Kitty's boss, Dylan, said. "The bar's been jumping tonight. The fire fighters just got the Morning Side blaze under control and a lot of crews coming in to celebrate." 

"They deserve it. I mean do wild fires get worse than that?" Kitty replied. She yelled through the door of the pantry while she got ready for work. 

"I can't remember Boulder ever being in this much danger before and I've lived here for ten years." Dylan said. "So how'd finals go?" 

"I feel good about them, but I'll let you know for sure when the Profs post our scores." Kitty replied stepping out of the pantry in the sleeveless top and leather pants she wore while bartending. 

Kitty headed out front. About halfway threw her shift a boisterous group came in. They were fresh from the fires judging from the soot and dirt still clinging to them. The guys grabbed a booth in the back while two members of their party headed to the bar to get drinks. 

Thirty minutes later they caught Kitty's attention once again as one of the group raised his glass in a toast. "To Lance and the fast firebreak in the west." 

Kitty's breath caught. She reminded herself that Lance was a common name. Still she couldn't help but stare and hope. 

The center of attention ducked his head, embarrassed. One of his friends nudged him and he glanced up. There was a smear of bright red clay bisecting his face, and the years just fell away. Without taking her eyes off him Kitty started working her way around the end of the bar. 

Lance hadn't noticed her yet. Kitty found herself remembering a phone call out of the blue one day. She couldn't believe he was here, now, after all this time. She couldn't believe what she was going to do. She quietly slipped into the booth behind him and put her hands over his eyes. "Guess who?" she whispered in his ear. 

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	2. Watching Waves

**Watching Waves** Disclaimer: They belong to Marvel, I'm just playing, but I promise to put them back when I'm done. 

Thanks to everyone who sent feedback: HoneyBug17, Hobo's Friends, HRHobo, Dee Saylors, Twinkles, Tyriel1, Dusty, Risty, Rogue14, Neptune47, Skull Xero 

****** ****** ****** 

"Who messed up my Newspaper clippings?" Todd demanded. He held up several crumpled balls of paper. 

Pietro and Fred glanced up from their respective breakfasts. They shared a look then announced "Lance." It was the obvious answer since the dark haired teen wasn't present to defend himself. Todd scowled and wandered off muttering to himself only to be distracted by the TV a few minutes later. 

Around five o' clock that evening Pietro stood in front of the Boarding House and glared at the empty spot where Lance usually parked his jeep. "He should have told me he was going somewhere." Pietro complained. "He should have made sure I didn't want to drive anywhere first." 

"Has anyone seen Lance?" Wanda asked two days later. "He was supposed to drive me to the grocery store today." 

Fred and Todd exchanged an uncertain look. "Haven't seen him." Todd said, he sounded a little concerned. 

"Yo, Pietro when's the last time you saw Lance?" Todd asked while the group was eating dinner in front of the TV that evening. 

"Wednesday, why?" Pietro asked. 

"Because none of us have seen him since then." Todd said. 

"He's probably off sulking somewhere." Pietro said dismissively. "He's been in a bad mood ever since I came back to the team." 

"Somehow I doubt that's a coincidence." Wanda said as she shot a glare at her brother. 

Two days later Pietro came into the kitchen and found Todd and Fred with a stack of fliers. They were pouring over a map of Bayville. "I'll take everything east of the school, that's the half-way point." Todd said. "Don't put up more than one flier per block okay?" 

"What'ya doing?" Pietro asked. He snatched up one of the fliers. He recognized the picture of Lance from the subway wreck, the flier read: "Have you seen this person, 5'10", brown hair, brown eyes, answers to Lance Alvers or Avalanche. Call 608-778-5901 with any information." 

Todd grabbed the flier back. "It's been a week." He said defensively. 

"What? You think he's wandering around town like a lost pet?" Pietro asked sarcastically. 

"At least we're doing something." Fred said accusingly. 

"Something stupid. I've got a better idea. Let's go attack the X-Geeks." 

Wanda joined the other three in the kitchen. She stood against the wall her arms crossed over her chest. 

"What for?" Fred asked. 

"Well it's obvious: They took Lance." Pietro stated. 

"Why would they do that?" Wanda asked sarcastically. 

"They're our enemies, that's why. Besides who else would want Lance?" 

"Apocalypse." Wanda hissed. 

"Anti-Mutant groups." Todd suggested. 

"The government." Fred added. 

"Well we don't know where to find any of them." Pietro pointed out. 

"We know where Apocalypse is." Wanda said. 

"And if we went there we'd get squashed, just like Magneto." Pietro replied. "So how about infiltrating the X-Geeks' Mansion? We'll sneak in, rescue Lance and trash the place." 

Todd and Fred considered their options. "We'll hang up fliers first. We can sneak in better after dark anyway, yo." 

"Count me out." Wanda said and left. 

"While you guys do your fliers I'll come up with a brilliant strategy." Pietro said. He sat down at the table to think while Todd and Fred gathered up their supplies and left. 

That night the trio crouched at the perimeter of the Xavier estate. 

"So what do we do?" Blob asked. 

"I'm faster then their security system. I'll run in and turn it off. Gimme a minute, no thirty seconds then come after me." Quicksilver instructed. 

Toad and Blob looked at one another then shrugged. "It ain't like we got a better plan." Toad said. 

Quicksilver darted past the mansion's sluggish defenses and made his way to the control panel in the main hall. Once there he started randomly pounding on buttons. After several seconds he paused once he realized that he didn't have a clue as to how to shut thing down. 

Outside Toad and Blob counted down the seconds then charged after Quicksilver. The lasers sprang to life. Toad ducked behind his large, invulnerable friend. "This wasn't in the plan!" He exclaimed as the pair charged ahead. 

Blob gulped. Toad peeked around him and saw Storm hovering before them. There was lightening crackling around her hands. "Shit!" Toad swore. 

Inside the mansion Quicksilver smashed his fist into the keyboard trying to shut off the alarms. A heavy hand descended on his shoulder. "Looking for something kid?" Wolverine asked in a threatening growl. 

Quicksilver wriggled free and sprinted out the door. He disappeared into the night. 

"Our fearless leader," Blob commented with a roll of his eyes as he and Toad watched the Quicksilver-colored blur race for the hills. 

Toad sucked in a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. He didn't come out from behind Blob's protective mass. "Give Lance back and we'll leave without starting anything." He said. 

"You have already started something." Storm announced regally as various X-Men appeared. They looked half-dressed and out of sorts after being drug out of bed in the middle of the night. 

"We want Lance!" Todd demanded. Storm answered his challenge with a lightening bolt that sent both boys scurrying for cover. 

When they saw the pair routed the X-Men stumbled back toward their beds and interrupted sleep. 

"What was that all about?" Kitty wondered. 

"Some nonsense about Avalanche." Storm said as she settled to the ground beside the girl with a yawn. 

****** ****** ****** 

"Alright, a direct attack might not have been the best idea I ever had." Pietro admitted. "They out number us five to one or something." 

"Plus they got adults." Todd said. "And you ran out on us, yo!" 

"I'm seeing a pattern in that." Fred complained. 

"Look, I have a better plan." Pietro said. "They have a hostage so we get a hostage." 

"Okay, you're making sense now." Todd said. "We grab one of the little, harmless ones and they'll have to give Lance back. They're good guys, it's like a rule or something." 

"So who are we gonna nab?" Fred asked. 

"How about Multiple. He's 12, how much trouble could he be?" Pietro said. 

****** ****** ****** 

"Hank I thought you were taking Jamie on a field trip to the aquarium?" Xavier asked a frown on his face. 

Hank looked up from the book he had been reading with a slight smile. "He was kidnapped by the Brotherhood. I'm expecting a call any minute." 

Xavier noticed Hank was reading "The Ransom of Red Chief." 

"Do you really think that is a viable plan?" He asked with a gesture toward the book. 

Hank smiled wolfishly. "Jamie was in quite a mood today. I think he must have found one of the other student's sugar stashes." 

****** ****** ****** 

"Grab him!" Pietro yelled. 

"Which him?" Fred demanded. He looked from the Jamie who was jumping on the bed to the one sliding down the banister, to the one racing down the hall handing out pixie sticks. Fred could hear the creak of the chandelier where one or two more Jamies were probably swinging. Todd yelped in a way that meant someone slammed a door on his tongue. 

"Any of them!" Pietro shouted. 

Fred lunged for the one on the bed. There was a soft pop and three more Jamies appeared then ran off giggling. 

"Shoo! Get out of my room! Shoo!" Pietro exclaimed as he pushed several Jamies out his door. 

"Gimme back the phone you little maniac, maniacs, whatever!" Todd demanded as two Jamies ran around him. They tangled the phone cord around him until Todd fell over, bound hand and foot. Then Jamies ran off to find something more entertaining to do. 

Wanda turned as she heard the door to her room opening. She glared at the multitude of identical brown-haired boys. Without a word they closed the door and backed away. 

Todd managed to free one arm and dialed the Xavier Institute. "Hello, this is Hank McCoy speaking. How may I help you?" Beast answered in a disgustingly cheerful voice. 

"Yo, this is Toad. If you want Multiple back…" 

"Not quite yet." Hank interrupted. "I'm extremely busy at the moment. A more detailed translation of the hieroglyphics from the Sphinx just arrived." 

Todd stared at the phone unable to believe the blue furred mutant had hung up on him. 

"Hey come back with my sandwich!" Fred yelled. 

"Ow! Cut that out!" 

"What are you doing?" 

CRASH! BANG! SMASH! 

****** ****** ****** 

Hank hummed cheerfully as he poured chemicals from one beaker to another. He watched the combined liquids hiss and bubble as they mixed. 

The phone rang. Hank picked it up. 

"We babysat the brat all day!" Toad snapped. "In payment we want Lance! NOW!" 

"I'm sorry?" Hank said. He sounded a bit confused. "What are you talking about?" 

"Lance! He's gone you must have taken him!" 

"Todd, are you saying that Lance is missing?" Hank asked with concern. 

"Don't play innocent with me, you took him!" 

"When was the last time you saw him?" 

"You have to have taken him!" Todd insisted. Hank sighed at the desperation underlying the freshman's voice. "If you don't have him, how are we supposed to get him back?" 

"Todd calm down. I'm going to come over to collect Jamie. I want you to have your whole group there so I can question you about Lance's disappearance." 

****** ****** ***** 

While the Brotherhood was having fun with Multiple Kitty found herself starring at one of Todd and Fred's fliers. "Do you think something really might have happened to Lance?" she asked. 

Scott shrugged. "I haven't seen him since they caused the train wreck. I still can't believe that the Looserhood was stupid enough to pull something like that. Half the town could have been destroyed." 

"Lance stayed helped us stop that from happening." Kitty said quietly. "That should have counted for something." She pulled down the flyer and started back toward the Mansion to show it to Professor Xavier. 

"I'll set up Cerebro to make special note of any use of Avalanche's power." Xavier said. "However, with the pressing danger from Apocalypse, we simply don't have the resources to do more." 

Days stretched into weeks then months and Cerebro never detected the slightest trace of Lance's existence. Todd fell into a ritual of accidentally on purpose bumping into Kitty every few days to ask if there was any news about Lance. After a while words weren't even necessary. Their eyes would meet and Todd could see his answer in her somber gaze. 

A year passed. Apocalypse fell. Magneto returned. Jean went to college while Scott took on more adult responsibilities in the X-Man. Wanda regained her memories and left. Evan regained control of his mutation and came home. Rogue graduated and Kitty became a senior. Pietro became a full-fledged member of Magneto's primary team while Colossus defied his former master and joined the X-Men. Kurt stopped wearing his image inducer and Logan left the X-Men to spend more time away from civilization with the girl who'd been known as X23. Kelly was elected in a landslide after narrowly escaping assassination at the claws of Sabretooth. Bobby, Amara and Sam joined the ranks of the X-Men while Paige Guthrie, Jonothon Starsmore and Xi'an Coy Manh became the Institute's newest class. Gambit, Berserker and Boom Boom left their respective teams to follow a hard-edged mercenary known as Cable. He claimed to believe in Xavier's dream even while his extreme methods shocked and dismayed the X-Men. And Pyro published an extremely sappy romance novel under an assumed name; it topped the bestseller list for three weeks running. 

"Time don't stand still." Todd said as he and Kitty parted ways. Kitty stopped and glanced back at him. "I miss Wanda." He said. "I'm going after her. There's no guarantee I'll ever see her again if I just wait. Fred says there's nothing left for him here. He's going home… Lance ain't ever coming back. We'll be at the crater sight at sunset tomorrow. We thought you might want to come say goodbye too. Bring something that reminds you of something about him. It ain't like we've got a body to bury." 

The fading sunlight glittered off an expanse of sand melted into glass. Even after a year the stretch of tracks where Avalanche had buried the explosion still looked like a fresh scar on the land. Kitty met the last two member of the Brotherhood there. They had been her first enemy as an X-Man. Today was their last day in Bayville. 

Fred quickly dug a deep hole beside the crater. Todd sat an empty box beside it then solemnly laid a stack of detention slips in it. "For all the trouble we got into together and all the fun we had doing it." He said. 

"I wasn't sure what I should bring." Fred stammered uncertainly. He set a battered, homemade checkerboard in the box. "You remember when I had that really bad cough and couldn't sleep? Lance stayed up with me, we played checkers." 

"That's good Freddy." Todd reassured the older teen. 

Kitty stepped forward and added the X-Men uniform from Lance's very abbreviated career as with the team. "For the most insane, incredible, sweetest thing Lance ever did to impress me, and because he was a better a better person than anyone gave him credit for being." 

****** ****** ****** 

A continent away Lance watched the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. A textbook lay forgotten in his lap. His hands were cracked and rough from working at a cannery to pay the rent while he took classes at night to try and to get his GED. 

Once the last of the light was gone Lance tucked his books under his arm and started the long trek back to the glorified closet he called home. It was a little efficiency that shared a bathroom with one neighbor and a kitchen with four. 

He put his shoulder to the warped door and forced it open after turning the key in the lock. As he entered the room Lance wrinkled his nose a little at the smell of mold. The room was dark and dingy and he spent as little time there as possible, but it was a place to sleep and it was in his price range. 

Lance ran his fingertips over the frames of the three pictures sitting on top of his dresser and smiled a little. On one side they represented lonely evenings spent doing stupid sentimental things like writing letters to the newspaper in Bayville, the school photographer and the counselor at Camp Ironback. But they also represented the part of his life in Bayville that he wanted to keep close. The first picture was of the Brotherhood. The one taken right after the subway wreck when their actions had still been innocent and genuine. Then there was the picture of himself and Kitty from the Sadie Hawkin's Dance. Once in his life he'd thought everything might work out. Then Mystique came back and he screwed up the best thing that had ever happened to him. The last picture was of both teams on top of Mount Humiliation. A moment's truce and maybe even more importantly a reminder of a day when they hadn't been fighting as heroes and villains or soldiers for Magneto and Xavier's ideals. For once they'd just been a bunch of kids competing for bragging rights. Lance shook his head; he almost could have liked Summers that day when he'd stopped acting superior and just played the game. For one day the Brotherhood and the X-Men had pitted their powers against each other in a game barely more serious than the last time one of the X-Men's new recruits had yelled 'Mutant Ball'. 

Lance headed into the kitchen and started some water boiling. He was glad he and the other four people in the efficiency had decided a phone was a luxury they couldn't afford. He knew having one in the apartment would have been too much of a temptation. Lance knew if he called, if he heard any of their voices he'd turn around and go home. 

Working a minimum wage job and not supplementing his income with theft while trying to go to school was harder than he'd thought it would be. Being the only mutant again after being part of a team for so long made him lonely and wanting to keep his mutation a secret made him reluctant to find new friends. But there were pluses: Just a few more months and he'd have the GED. Then maybe he could start looking for a better job. Most importantly what he did with his life was his choice. There was no one here to take that away from him. No one to manipulate or use him. No one to push him into situations where could end up killing someone. He certainly wasn't a hero and he probably wasn't even a good person Lance thought. But that was one line he didn't want to cross. That was why he wasn't going back to Bayville; he'd come too close already. If he had stayed there would be blood on his hands someday, probably sooner rather than later. 

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	3. Found in Flames

**Found in Flames** Disclaimer: They belong to Marvel, I'm just playing, but I promise to put them back when I'm done. 

Thanks for the feedback: Eileen, Skull Xero, IceBlueRose, Dusty, Neptune47

Oregon coast winters were the bane of his existence Lance decided. He stood outside of the cannery and watched the clouds overpower the pale winter sun that had only been visible for few brief moments. He grimaced as the weather returned to what he'd come to think of as normal: Endless days of a melancholy drizzle that didn't even deserve the dignity of being called rain. The weather brought down everyone's spirits and once you got wet it was impossible to warm up again. Damp, icy clothes clung to your body and you felt like you were growing mold. The sun became a distant memory… Some days Lance wondered why he didn't just pack up and move on. 

He'd been looking for a different job for two months without any luck and Lance was starting to run low on determination. As for optimism, he'd run out of that when he'd been ten years old. He had freedom and independence, but no future, no friends and he didn't see that changing any time soon. He avoided other mutants for fear of being dragged back into the cycle of manipulation and loss of control that had driven him out of Bayville. He avoided becoming too close to the humans he dealt with everyday for fear of being discovered. Anti-mutant sentiments were only getting stronger despite the X-Men's tireless efforts to become heroes in the public's eyes as well as in deed. 

The ground shuttered violently. The tremors startled Lance and several of his co-workers from their break. "Earthquake?" One man yelled. 

"No." Lance said with absolute certainty. He scanned the horizon. 

Several more shocks hit the area. The old, corrugated aluminum buildings that populated the harbor area groaned ominously with each impact. Lance spotted a flash of light and flames. He heard the flat reverberation of heavy ordinance fire. "It's explosions, some kind of battle." He said. 

"A battle? Here? Why?" A boy Lance guessed to be a year or two younger than himself asked. 

"Mutants," one of the older men cursed. Lance didn't say anything. He didn't like it but the truth was that had been his first thought as well. 

The little group heard a beastlike roar. A flash of something huge and green appeared over the roofs for a moment. It landed with an earthshaking crash. Several moments later they heard the whir of helicopter blades approaching. The helicopters swarmed around the spot where the large mutant had landed like mosquitoes and got swatted like the same. A damaged chopper rose unsteadily in an attempt to escape the battle zone. A moment later a chuck of concrete flew after it like a missile. 

"Everyone, away from the building!" Lance yelled. As he'd predicted the chopper crashed into the side of the cannery and exploded in a ball of flames a moment later. 

The little group of bystanders watched in horror as the side of the building caved in on top of their co-workers. Lance and several others ran to clear away the rubble from the door. They tried to create an escape route for those trapped inside. The battle raged on in the background as they tore the debris away. Each impact and explosion further compromised the structure. It lent an air of desperation to the rescue efforts. Lance was quickly swept up in the moment. The rush of adrenaline made him feel alive in a way he'd almost forgotten. 

"Goddamn mutants!" a man swore. 

"What about those idiots shooting at him!" Lance yelled back angrily as they entered the building. 

Outside sirens were heard adding to the general chaos. 

A man in firefighting gear grabbed Lance's shoulder. "You've got to get out of here." He ordered. 

Lance shook his head. "We're still missing Lonny and Banks. They were working back this way." 

"If one more shock hits this place it's going to go." 

Lance's eyes blazed with determination. He commanded the earth. If he didn't want it to shake it would obey, bombs, tanks and the Hulk be damned! "There won't be another shock." He told the firefighter, his voice firm with conviction. 

"You're one of those mutants." The man accused as he realized the implications of Lance's statement. 

"You wanna make something of it?" 

"Maybe later. If you can hold this place together we've got two people to save." 

"I can hold it." Lance said. He reached out with his powers to still every vibration. 

The firefighter nodded. "Bill! Jerry!" he yelled. "We've got two more back here." 

Quickly the four of them resumed clearing the rubble. They found the last pair of Lance's co-workers huddled under the meager protection of a desk. 

As soon as the six of them were outside Lance released his hold on the Earth. A moment later the Hulk made another earth-pounding leap and the resultant shockwaves totaled the damaged structure. 

The firefighter gave Lance an appraising look. "How much territory can you cover?" He demanded. 

"A building, maybe two." Lance guessed. 

"I'll take anything I can get. We've got people trapped in eight other buildings so far. None of them are safe to enter as long as this keeps up. You willing to help out?" 

"Yeah, sure." Lance stammered and found himself immediately being hustled toward the fire chief's car. 

"This is Chief Jarol." The firefighter announced grabbing the handset on the car radio. "I want a report now: structural soundness and victim counts for each building." 

For a minute or so clipped reports rolled in then Jarol hit the sirens and they were off. 

"So you're the chief and you're going in buildings and stuff?" Lance asked awkwardly. 

"Today everyone's on the front lines." Jarol said. "Your friend hit us too fast and too hard for anyone to be evacuated." 

"Hey don't blame me for that guy! I never met him. I don't even know if he's a real mutant or some sort of freak accident. And it's not like you humans are making things any better with all those bombs. He's the only one not getting hurt by them!" 

"Okay you made your point. Try to hold both those two buildings. Best estimate we've got five people between 'em. If you have to choose, keep the one on the right." 

"I'm good." Lance said. 

"Alright, back in the buildings make it quick. I don't know how much time we've bought." Jarol ordered leaping out of the car. "You stay here." He said to Lance. 

Ten minutes later they were screaming toward the next sight. 

Lance stood outside of the third building and tried to give the firefighters a chance to get everyone out despite the on-going battle. A burning car was hurtled from several blocks away and landed in the street. The flames endangered yet another building. Lance grabbed a heavy tarp and went to try to beat the flames out before they could spread. He was quickly joined by the professional firefighters. Even more quickly they sent him back to Jarol's car. 

Four hours later the battle ended. Along with the battle the need for Lance's special talents ended. He was left fidgeting in the car and feeling useless. Every time he tried to help someone immediately ordered him back to the sidelines. 

"Okay," Jarol said as he got back in the car, "they don't need me getting in their way anymore. How about I give you a ride home?" 

"You going to tell everyone I'm a mutant?" Lance asked. His adrenaline rush had long since worn off and the cautious that had become customary for him had reasserted itself with a vengeance. Inside of his head Lance was calling himself twenty different kinds of a fool. 

"Some of them will guess." Jarol said. "I'll encourage anyone who comes to me with questions to forget 'em. Don't worry I know my guys. They're good people. They won't come looking for trouble." 

"Whatever. I live down on southwest ninth." 

Lance stared out the window at the devastated city and wondered if he should move on. 

"Directions?" 

"Crescent Apartments, 3065." 

As they turned the last corner a moment of silence descended. Lance got out of the car and took a few steps toward the fresh ruins. "Hell." he swore hopelessly. 

"I don't know what to say." Jarol said. "We passed a bar a couple of blocks back. I'll buy the drinks." 

Lance looked stunned as he got back in the car. Jarol took a closer look at him. "On second thought, you aren't even twenty-one are you kid?" 

"According to my ID I am." Lance replied. 

"Normally I'd have to say something about that, but under the circumstances…" 

Once they'd settled in at the bar Jarol asked. "You ever think about going into fire fighting or search and rescue for real kid?" 

"My apartment's flat... just like my crummy job. I'm pretty open to career advice today." Lance replied with a tinge of bitter amusement. 

"You should think about it. I'm not exactly sure what it is your powers do, but forgetting about them, you've got good instincts for what to do in a crisis. I know we kept you out of the thick of things for the most part today. Instincts only take you so far then they leave you in over your head. If you're interested in a job I don't see a problem with you bunking at the station while you get some of the basic training. I'll expect you to do some classes at the community college on down the road. If you're interested?" 

"Um, well, um, yeah." Stammered Lance. 

As the evening wore on more people appeared in the bar. Quite a number of them came over to ask Jarol about the extent of the damage. Those who'd seen Lance with him during the day stared curiously at the young man. Uncomfortable with the attention Lance slid deeper into the shadows in the back of the booth. He wished he could risk getting totally wasted, but he'd decided a long time ago that with his powers losing control wasn't such a good idea. 

The news came on the TV above the bar. As the full impact of the day's devastation sank in a somber silence filled the bar. In its wake came angry mutterings. 

"In national news Coos Bay isn't the only city to be devastated by super powered beings today. As we speak Miami is caught in the cross-fires tonight as well…" As the announcer spoke footage of the X-Men fighting a group of mutants Lance didn't recognize played across the screen to the accompaniment of hostile muttering in the bar. 

Quietly Lance got up to leave. He figured he could still walk back to his jeep and be somewhere else by morning. Well, assuming the jeep hadn't destroyed along with everything else. Then a familiar figure on the screen captured his attention. Frozen in his tracks Lance watched the battle unfold. 

Jarol drew Lance back into his seat. "It's okay kid. No reason to be nervous." He said quietly. 

Lance was too fixated by the danger surrounding Kitty on the TV screen to answer. As he watched he started noticing a pattern that brought a scowl to his face. "She turns intangible you big ox. Why don't you go hover over someone who needs it." He muttered under his breath. "You're just trying to impress her now. And aren't you supposed to be on Magneto's team anyway?" 

Jarol watched Lance with surprise. He couldn't quite catch the words, just the tone. "I thought you'd like the X-Men, what with…" 

"It's not them, it's him!" Lance hissed as the picture closed in on Colossus. "They're in the middle of a battle and he's trying to flirt!" 

Jarol took in Lance's outraged tone with a snort of laughter. "Kid, ain't that the equivalent of me having a crush on Laren Bacall? Those X-Men ain't exactly regular joes. I hear their new member, Dazzler… blond thing, does something with light and sound… She was some sort of pop star before she got outed as a mutant, so she joined the X-Men." 

For a moment Lance thought about telling Jarol he knew Kitty, knew all the older X-Men, then the moment passed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. She's out saving the world and I'm no hero." 

Jarol's expression turned completely serious. "I wouldn't say that Lance. There are at least a dozen people who wouldn't have made it today if you hadn't been here. I wouldn't say that at all." 

****** ****** ****** 

**Several hours earlier and a continent away**

//Cable's in Miami!// Jean projected as she pulled off Cerebro's head set and ran for the hanger. 

Cyclops was already in the middle of running the pre-flight when she arrived. Shadowkat, Colossus, Storm, Iceman, Magma, Cannonball and Rogue were on the jet, ready and waiting. 

"Rogue you don't…" Jean began. 

"Shove it Jean." Rogue interrupted. "Ah've already heard it from all of them, I'm going. I _want_ to give that Swamp Rat a piece of my mind." 

****** ****** ****** 

"This is just like them!" Boom Boom exclaimed angrily. She tossed several cherry bombs at the X-Men. "Try and do things a little different and they act like you're the next Magneto in sheep's clothing." 

"We don't have time for this. Cable is counting on us." The team's second in command, a dark haired woman with the facial markings of a panda, said. "Cyclops stop being obtuse. Just because we admit to being a paramilitary strike force doesn't mean we're the bad guys. Cable didn't try to assassinate Xavier!" 

"I saw what happened Domino!" Cyclops yelled back. He fired an optic blast at her only to have it deflected by a piece of falling debris. 

"Yo! Ain't you ever heard everyone has an evil twin?" Toad shouted. 

"Only mine isn't identical." The Scarlet Witch muttered to herself. She tried to free a hand from Jean's telekinetic hold long enough to hex the redhead. 

"Ah should've know a snake can't change its spots." Rogue spat then threw a punch at Gambit. Since the battle started he'd been steadily been working to isolate her from the group. "All yah did was change who's lackey yah are." 

"I t'ink by now I'd have earned de benefit of de doubt chere." Gambit said in exasperation. "De attack on Xavier was a diversion! A way to get us fighting amongst ourselves and out of de way. Y're doing Stryfe's dirty work for him. Go home 'fore y' regret it." 

"Ah thought yah'd be a good liar at least." Rogue accused. 

"Y' don' believe me?" Gambit demanded. He stripped off one of the fingerless gloves he wore and stretched a hand out to her in invitation. "See for yourself if y've so little faith in me." 

Rogue hesitated. She stared at his out stretched hand knowing a single touch would eliminate the need for trust and tell her exactly what he was thinking. Gambit cursed. He lunged forward and pulled her into a rough kiss. As their lips met they melted into each other. For a moment the attraction they couldn't deny overwhelmed the circumstances of the kiss. Then Rogue's powers came to life. She caught Gambit as he fell and gently laid him on the pavement. Then she turned to confront her fellow X-Men with demonic red-on-black eyes. "Cyke, listen to her! We're fighting the wrong people!" She yelled. 

****** ****** ****** 

"So how'd you two end up with Cable?" Kitty asked Todd as they hurried toward the target. Domino had grudgingly agreed to work with the X-Men after a quick but nasty argument with Scott about how their help was neither needed nor wanted. 

"We had to keep busy somehow." Todd said with a shrug. "What with Mags being presumed dead again and all. Wanda's sure it's just a matter of time before he pops up somewhere, but until then… We get along alright with these guys." 

"I just figured she'd go after Quicksilver and those Acolytes." Kitty said. Colossus followed behind them. He frowned jealously at Todd. It bothered him that Kitty was even talking to one of Cable's less than reputable team members. 

"Naw." Todd snorted. "Quickie's just a figurehead for those Magneto-loving culties. Fabien Cortez is the real power in that bunch. He's got Pietro so thoroughly under his thumb. We figured the worst thing we could do to Quickie was to leave him lying in the bed he made. Plus Wanda and I don't really want to kill him. We both liked him once." 

The conversation died as they reached the outer perimeter of the base. All business now, Shadowkat held out her hands to her companions and phased them through the forbidding concrete wall surrounding the compound. 

From all sides smaller units of X-Men and X-Force teams used their powers or skills to break into the base. 

As Shadowkat, Toad and Colossus explored the compound they heard the sound of fighting. They followed the noise and found Cable crouched behind a makeshift barricade. He was holding off a half-dozen evil mutants. "What they hell took you so long!" He bellowed as they ambushed his opponents. "This place is another diversion. We've got to move out now!" 

At a glance Toad took in the melted bit of slag that had been Cable's comm badge. He tapped his own. "We found Cable. He says fall back." He reported to his teammates. 

"The docks, pier 83." 

"New target: pier 83 at the docks. Toad out." 

The various splinters of Cable's forces verified that they had their orders. Then the group made haste to withdraw. 

When they exited the compound Stryfe's Dark Riders descended in full force. 

"The X-Men will hold them." Cyclops told Cable. "Sabotage missions are more your people's forte anyway." 

"Whatever gets the job done." Cable replied blandly. "X-Force, reform on me. We've got a job to do." 

"X-Men, cover their retreat!" Cyclops ordered. 

****** ****** ****** 

Exhausted the X-Men reclined on the ground in the shade of the X-Jet following the battle. 

Rogue sat with Gambit's head in her lap as she waited for him to throw off the effects of her powers. 

"You know he's going to be in a lousy mood when he wakes up." Kitty commented. She walked over to collapse on the grass beside Piotr. 

"He was right. Ah should have trusted him more." Rogue sighed. 

Cable and Domino walked up to the group. Cable dropped an empty canister on the ground at Cyclops' feet. "We wasted too much time." He said. "It was already done." 

He walked over to Gambit and Rogue and slung the unconscious Cajun over his shoulder. "If I were you I'd get out of here fast and I wouldn't drink the water. I've got a feeling that whatever Stryfe left us as his legacy it's going to be unpleasant." 

Back Next Please send feedback 


	4. Hectic Days

**Hectic Days** Disclaimer: Characters are the property of Marvel, I'm just playing with them, I promise to put them back later. 

Thanks for the feedback: Dusty, Risty, Pandora, IceBlueRose, Yuurei Kinhoshiou, Soul141 

Q&A: 

Future plans: I'm planning about two more chapters before Lance and Kitty see each other again in Boulder, after that I really don't know. I'll go back and re-read "Mekanix" (Like I need an excuse :) ) and see. Right now though I think the most likely thing is one epilogue type chapter after they've met. 

Rogue and Gambit: I'm trying to mix element from 616 and Evo. But because everyone knows Gambit worked for Magneto that wouldn't cause the problem with mistrust and him keeping secrets that existed in 616 for the longest time, because of his past association with Sinister. To bring that aspect of their relationship into Evo, I decided to have Remy join Cable's X-Force, who aren't fully trusted by the X-Men. So the tension between the teams creates a degree of mistrust and tension between Rogue and Gambit despite a strong attraction to one another. 

Cable: He's a very powerful telekinetic and telepath, but uses most of his power to keep the techno-organic virus he's infected with from spreading and tends to carry around a very large riffle to compensate for having most of his mutant abilities otherwises occupied. His back story is very, very complicated, I'm not even going to touch on it. 

Colossus: The only time I was ever a fan of Kitty/Colossus was after he was dead (Because every story I've seen of Kitty dealing with his death has been so incredibly good). His death is one of the things that really affects Kitty, I think it's the last straw that causes her to decide to stop being a superhero. So for it's affect on Kitty, I'm including K/C in the story, but I'm not a shipper for the couple (I like her with Lance in Evo and Pete Wisdom in 616).

****** ******* ****** 

Lance jolted upright at the sound of an alarm. Well conditioned reflexes had him scrambling into his gear and racing for the trucks in a matter of seconds. 

As they drove to the situation sight particulars were passed on over the radio. "Jack-knifed semi carrying flammables. Two other vehicles involved. There are several buildings endangered by the blaze. Traffic is relatively light. Several bystanders have been acting as flaggers…" 

They arrived at the scene and started setting up a perimeter around the fire. Lance joined a team hosing down the nearby buildings to keep the blaze from spreading. 

"Alvers, there's a girl trapped in one of the cars. We don't have time to wait. See if there's anything you can do." Jeremy Bills, Lance's crew chief, said. 

Lance nodded. Over the years his mutation had become something of an open secret with his co-workers. Still it was something he tried to keep from becoming widely known. He trusted the guys he worked with. That didn't mean he trusted humans. A branch of the Friends of Humanity held meetings five blocks from where he lived. 

Jarol said it was karma that their new meeting hall was closer to his apartment than the first one. Lance's standard reply was that he still wasn't sorry about refusing to help when the first place had burned down. According to Lance _that_ was karma. The fire had started while they'd been burning an effigy of a mutant. Lance thought their dummy was supposed to have looked like Nightcrawler. The whole thing had made him sick to his stomach. Still, even taking the FOH into consideration, this was the best life Lance had ever managed to find so he used his powers as only when he had to and with discretion. 

He made his way toward the car. It had apparently crossed the yellow line and ran head long into the semi which had caused the accident. Looking at the mangled frame Lance was a little surprised there was someone alive inside it. In addition to surviving the impact they'd been incredibly luck that a strong wind had pushed the flames away from them. 

As Lance got closer to the wreck his eyes widened. The driver's hand was hanging out the broken window her skin was a pale lavender. Upon seeing him the young girl cringed away from him as much as she could. 

"It's okay." Lance said as he knelt by the door to examine the twisted frame. "I'm here to help." 

"It was an accident." The girl babbled. "I was upset. I took the corner too fast. I didn't mean it. I'm sorry it was an accident." 

"I know." Lance replied trying to sooth her. "It's okay, I'm going to get you out of there. It's okay. You've got to sit still thought." 

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I didn't do it on purpose." The girl repeated. She was too lost in pain and fear to hear Lance's reassurances. 

Lance paused to reach through the shattered window. He hoped that by touching her he could break through the girl's panic and calm her down. She yelped in terror and cringed away from him. Lance stopped. As he stared into fearful amber eyes he realized why she was probably afraid. "I'm like you." He said. "I'm a mutant. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. Look, I'm a mutant like you." 

Lance stopped talking for a moment so he could focus his entire attention on the door. He'd started picking up the basics of this trick back in Bayville. Of choosing exactly which areas his powers affected. It was how he'd buried the trains. He'd only let the earthquake happen in the ground directly beneath the explosion. His tremors had broken down the soil structure and changed the path of least resistance from being Jean's telekinetic shield to being the ground beneath the tracks. In the years since then he'd further refined his abilities. Lance rested his hands against the door and closed his eyes. A moment later the metal shook itself to pieces. 

The girl relaxed. Lance couldn't help but note he usually had to worry about the opposite reaction if he were caught using his powers. Then he cursed. The car's engine block was practically in the girl's lap. 

The walkie-talkie attacked to his coat crackled to life. "Alvers, the wind's changing. You've got to get out of there now!" 

"Shit! That's just what I need." Lance swore. No time to assess the girl's injuries or act cautiously. Lance repeated his trick on the engine block. It left him feeling a little faint. The way his powers worked it was almost easier to demolish a whole building than it was to knock over a vase. The more precise his focus the harder things got. To tear apart the solid steel engine block he had to create the equivalent of an eight on the Richter scale in the engine while leaving the girl underneath it untouched. 

As soon as the engine's weight stopped putting pressure on the girl's mangled legs blood started spurting out of them. 

"It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay," Lance kept repeating as he grabbed some rope from his gear and tried to tie off tourniquets on her legs. Already exhausted from using his powers, Lance's hands didn't want to cooperate. With an impatient exclamation he pulled off his gloves and finished attending to the girl's injuries. Then he picked her up and hurried toward the fire lines. 

When Lance tried to leave her with the newly arrived ambulance crew the girl clung to him sobbing in terror. 

"I'll tell your crew boss." One of the medics said. "Go ahead and stay. Try to find out what she does and if it's going to cause complications for us." 

Lance turned to the girl. "I'm staying. Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine. What's your name..." 

****** ****** ****** 

The following day the crew chief spotted Lance sitting on one of the bunks at the station playing solitaire. Jeremy watched over Lance's shoulder for a few minutes as the younger man missed several plays. It was obvious that only a fraction of his mind on the game. That, and the fact that he was cursing at the cards was a pretty good indicator that there was something wrong. 

"You okay?" Jeremy asked. "What happened with the girl from the wreck?" 

"She was an energy caster." Lance said quietly. "Exotic blood-type, they couldn't match it. We didn't get the bleeding staunched fast enough." 

"Aww hell Lance." 

"That's what happens." Lance said. He made his voice cold. 

"Call your family or someone." Jeremy advised. "Trust me, it'll help." 

"I'm fine." 

"Call." Jeremy insisted. He pulled Lance up and gave him a shove toward an empty office. 

For a long moment Lance stared at the phone. He'd wanted to do this for so long, but he'd been afraid he'd lose resolve if he did. 

"Call!" Jeremy ordered as he shut the door behind him. 

Lance picked up the phone and dialed the Brotherhood house. The number was still clear in his memory even after so much time away. 

"The number you have dialed is no longer in service." 

****** ****** ****** 

"Kitty! You still got that blue, satin ribbon?" Rogue yelled out the window of the mansion. 

Kitty looked up from her efforts at directing the current set of students as they decorated the Institute's front lawn. "It's in the box in the top drawer of my dresser. Why?" 

"Jean forgot something blue, so she's gonna have two things borrowed." 

"Logan are you sure it was a _good_ idea to bring X23- I mean Amiko, here?" Kurt asked. "You remember she gets odd around happy people?" 

"Amiko'll do fine." Logan replied a warning growl underlaid his words. 

"So how's the groom holding up?" Evan asked Xavier. 

"Alex is doing his duty as the best man and assuring Scott that we will get through today without Magneto, Sinister, Apocalypse or Sentinels attacking the Mansion." Xavier replied with a slight smile. 

"Has X-Force arrived yet?" Sam asked. 

"They're out on the back lawn." Warren replied settling to Earth with a flutter of his wings. There was a purple haired woman in his arms. 

"I don't believe this!" Amara exclaimed. "It's Colossus, no one's even seen him since his sister died. It was so sad, he'd barely found her." 

"Remy said his friend Courier could deliver to anyone anywhere." Rogue said smugly. "The only question was if Piotr was going to come or not." 

"I'm going to tell Kitty." Amara exclaimed. "I known they'll get back together given the opportunity." 

"Rahne, is that you?" Ray asked. 

The young woman sitting almost hidden in the shadows beneath an old oak tree turned a tear stained face toward him and tried to smile. 

"Rahnie, what's wrong?" Ray asked. He sat beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. 

"It's just… having everyone back together and Jamie not being here." Rahne sobbed. 

"Damn Friends of Humanity." Ray cursed as he remembered. A member of a mutant hate group had shot Jamie before the boy had even been old enough to graduate from high school. For a moment they'd thought Jamie's powers would save him but the wound had simply multiplied along with the boy. 

"Bobby we need more ice!" Kitty yelled as she stepped into the hall. The phone rang. "Xavier Institute of Higher Learning. May I help you?" Kitty asked distractedly. 

There was a long pause then a voice that drove every thought of the wedding out of Kitty's mind asked. "Kitty? Oh my god is that you?" 

"Yes, who's this?" Kitty asked. She didn't dare to believe her ears. 

"I can't believe it was you who picked up the phone. How are you? How is everyone?" 

"Who is this?" Kitty demanded. 

"Come on don't you recognize my voice?" 

"If that's the way you want to play it!" Kitty thought with a burst of anger. "You're not disappearing again on me, Lance Alvers!" 

"Of course I recognize your voice." Kitty said in a tone that indicated anything but. "Bobby, cut that out!" she yelled. "Hang on a minute _you know_ how Bobby is." 

Kitty put her hand over the mouthpiece as Bobby stuck his head out of the kitchen. He looked puzzled. "You told me to make more ice." He said. 

"That was a minute ago." Kitty replied. "Now I need you to trace a call." 

"Okay sure," Bobby said with a shrug. 

"I'm back." Kitty said. "How have you been?" 

"I asked first." 

"You are so stubborn! Oh all right. Well Jean and Scott are finally getting married. Rogue and Gambit are getting serious. Todd's trying to talk Wanda into catching the bouquet at the wedding… He already got Domino to get Cable to promise to make sure it goes to her and he figures with his ability to jump getting the garter won't be hard. Ray and Tabby are off; Bobby and Amara are on, in both cases that's subject to change with the wind. Kurt and Amanda are expecting their first baby. Fred married a girl from his hometown they're living quietly. Hank's dating a reporter. That pretty much covers the romances." 

"Let's see, villains: There's some yahoo trying to make another Weapon X program. I pity him when X23 gets her claws in him. We saved the world from Apocalypse… I think that's four times now. Saved the world from Exodus again. X-Force saved it from Stryfe several times and once from a new guy called Genesis. He'll be back; they always come back. More than once we came home from saving the world to an anti-mutant protest on our doorstep. We fought Legion again and the good personality is on top for the moment. Foiled one of Sinister's schemes… He sent Scott and Jean a wedding present by the way, lingerie and a card wishing them a fertile marriage. I guess that makes one bad guy Scott shouldn't worry about interrupting the honeymoon… Magneto's making his presence felt, I can't even remember how many times we've faced off against him anymore. I guess Wanda's mellowing. She stuck with her team instead of going out head hunting. Governor Kelly's making a bid for President and the FOH is supporting him. According to the polls he's got a decent chance of winning. Hank and Moira think they've got a lead on a cure for the Legacy Virus but they've thought that before so I'm not holding my breath." 

Todd wandered in. He was headed toward the kitchen. Kitty grabbed his arm. "Look there's something I've got to check. Here, talk to Todd for a while." 

"What?" Todd exclaimed as the phone was unceremoniously thrust into his hands. 

"Talk until I get back." Kitty ordered. 

"About what?" 

"About anything: gossip, sports, Wanda. I don't care, just talk till I say otherwise." Kitty said. She hurried down the hall to the mansion's central computer room. "Have you got it?" She asked Bobby. 

"Sure, the call's from Coos Bay, Oregon. A fire station." Bobby answered. He waited for an explanation from Kitty. 

"I wonder how the Professor possibly missed him?" Kitty muttered. "Could Lance really have not used his powers for all this time?" She picked up the nearest extension of the phone. "I'm back and you want to stay on the line Todd. I really did recognize your voice by the way. What the hell were you thinking Lance Alvers! You disappear without a word for five years! Leave us to think you're dead or something. Then when you finally do call you have the nerve to try to get an update on us without even letting on you were still alive! Didn't it ever occur to you we'd be worried out of our minds when you took off like that?" 

"Lance?" Todd asked sounding thunderstruck. 

"Um, yeah. Sorry. I didn't want you to hang up. I didn't know how you'd react if you knew it was me. I kinda freaked when the Boarding House number was disconnected." 

"There hasn't been anyone living there for better than four years." Todd said. 

"I guess you never got my letter then. I really didn't think about anyone missing me for the first year and a half or so. It took me that long to get my head straightened out. I am sorry. It was stupid. Everything's different with me, but I never thought Bayville would change. Like everything there would just freeze in amber the moment I left, stupid huh?" Lance said. "You and Wanda really joined an X-Team Todd? What happened to Pietro?" 

"X-Force ain't like the X-Men." Todd announced. "We're much cooler." 

"In your dreams frog-boy." Kitty shot back. "And we've already given you the cliff-notes version Lance. It's your turn to talk." 

"Yeah, I guess it is. I'm sorry Kitty. I should have said something, but be fair. I halfway thought you hated me when I left… You realize this is the first time we've talked since we broke up?" 

"Lance, I was mad at you for helping try to get us kicked out of school. Then there was the whole getting us thrown in jail thing! But I never hated you and I didn't stop caring. And then you were just gone. The Professor couldn't find you, even with Cerebro. We thought you were dead…" Kitty trailed off. 

"I really didn't mean to hurt you guys. I just, I had to get out, to get away. It just felt like nothing was ever going to change and I couldn't take it anymore." 

In the background Kitty and Todd heard alarms sound. "Damn." Lance swore. "I don't want to go, I'll call back, I swear. Bye." 


	5. Disaster Falls

**Disaster Falls** Disclaimer: Characters are the property of Marvel, I'm just playing with them, I promise to put them back later. 

Thanks for the feedback: Risty, Pandora, silhouette-Kitten 

Jarol stared at the fax in his hands. Then he turned to Jeremy Bills and asked. "Lance was on duty for the freeway fire the other day wasn't he?" 

"Yeah, why?" Jeremy asked. Jarol handed him the fax. "Shit." Jeremy swore. 

"I'll talk to Lance. You tell the rest of the crew." 

****** ****** ****** 

Lance towel dried his hair. He was glad to be rid of the smell of smoke and fire. Then he headed toward one of the station's more private phones. He was smiling a little at the thought of finishing his conversation with Kitty and Todd. He saw Jarol headed is way with a frown his face. "Whatever it is, I didn't do it." Lance joked. 

"Come on kid. We've gotta talk." Jarol said directing him toward an office. 

Lance rolled his eyes. "I'm 23. I wish you'd stop calling me 'kid'." 

"You're younger than my daughter." Jarol replied automatically falling into familiar banter. "Trust me, you're a kid." 

"Or you're just old." Lance said with a grin. ""So what's the deal?" 

Jarol sighed heavily. 

****** ****** ****** 

Jeremy looked around at his assembled crew. "Alright this is just a formality guys. There's nothing to worry about but we've got some people coming over from the hospital to collect blood samples from all of you. It turns out one of the victims in the wreck the other night had been diagnosed with the Legacy Virus. So far the disease has never infected a human, but considering the girl bled out they want to check us. Like I said, to the best of our knowledge this disease does not affect humans so there's nothing to get excited about." 

"What about Alvers?" A member of the team asked as he glanced toward the office where Jarol had sequestered Lance with concern. 

"Jarol's telling Alvers the same thing I'd be telling you guys if she'd been HIV positive. It's not likely to happen, this is just a precautionary measure." 

****** ****** ****** 

"Don't look at me like that kid." Jarol said. "You followed safety procedures…" 

Lance winced. "I may have deviated a little." 

"Damnit Lance!" Jarol exclaimed. "You know better." 

"Come on. I was tired. She was bleeding out in my arms. The fire was turning on us…" 

"Okay, it's not the end of the world. Chances of you being infected are still low. There's no reason for us to go assuming the worst. Chances are nothing's going to happen. Except me signing you up for the first refresher course in safety procedures that I can put together." 

"So I just take the test and hope for the best?" Lance asked. "Won't they figure out I'm a mutant? I trust you guys but I don't want those FOH bastards targeting me. I mean I can take care of myself but you really don't want me using my powers that way." 

"I don't want some idiot taking pot shots at you. I don't care how immortal you think you are, you're not bullet proof." Jarol said. "I checked things out, it's a blood test not a DNA analysis. You've got a standard blood type. They shouldn't notice anything strange." 

"Unless the test comes back positive." Lance said pessimistically. 

"Don't borrow trouble." Jarol replied. "It's not going to happen." 

"Probably." Lance said. "When are they doing the test?" 

****** ****** ****** 

After letting the paramedic collect a sample of his blood Lance decided to use up a sick day and headed out to what he thought of as his spot. 

Lance had left Bayville with no plans except to get away. He'd pointed the jeep west and started driving. He'd still had some of the reward money from the lady on the subway, so gas and food hadn't been a problem. The first thing he ran out of was road. Well technically he didn't run out of road, he got a second flat tire and realized he hadn't bothered to replace his spare after the first. If that hadn't have happened Lance figured he probably would have ended up in Alaska. 

He'd found himself here. Stranded on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere at a scenic view point along Oregon's Costal Highway overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He'd spent the night there listening to the waves and watching sun set, rather than rise, over the ocean for the first time in his life and it had just felt right. 

The next morning he hitchhiked to the nearest town. He got a spare to replace his tire and a ride back to the jeep. Then he drove back to town and started looking for a job and a place to stay. But this spot was his. It was the place he always came back to when he felt like giving up. 

Lance parked the jeep. He sat on the broad stone guard wall and watched the waves break against the rocks fifty feet below his perch. 

Several hours later another car pulled off the road and stopped beside Lance's jeep. A tiny lady, her once golden hair now predominately silver, climbed out and went to stand beside Lance. "Eddy said you'd be up here. And that you could probably use a home cooked meal." 

"Mrs. Jarol," Lance greeted her. She gave him a mildly reproving look. "Becca." Lance corrected himself. "I guess you heard." 

Becca nodded. "Brooding about things will only make you miserable." She said. "There's absolutely no reason for you to spend the whole night out here or alone in that apartment of yours. You'll have dinner with us. We can rent a movie or play cards. You can deal with tomorrow when it happens." 

"That's when I'll get the test results back." Lance said. 

"Everything will turn out just fine, you'll see." Becca promised as she urged Lance back toward the cars. 

At the Jarols' house Lance paused in the entry to take off his boots. Their Siamese twined around his ankles and generally made a nuisance of itself while mewing plaintively. Lance quickly checked to make sure Becca wasn't watching him then slid a sliver of jerky out of his pocket for the cat. "Shhh, our secret." He whispered. The Siamese daintily accepted the treat with an appreciative purr. 

Becca was putting some vegetables in the microwave as Lance came into the kitchen. "The roast is ready to come out of the oven and Eddy should be home any minute." She told him. 

"Smells great." Lance said as he took some plates out of the cabinet and went to set the table. 

"Of course it does. It's neither frozen nor does it come out of a box. I honestly don't know how you survive on that stuff." Becca replied tartly. 

"Pizza covers all four basic food groups and it comes delivered or frozen." Lance insisted good-naturedly. He hoped he'd cut her off before they reached the 'I met a nice girl' phase of the conversation. 

Becca sighed. "Don't worry. I'm not going to try to set you up with anyone tonight. But like I always tell Melissa, you can't blame an old woman for trying. That girl is utterly determined to not give me any grandchildren. I thought you and Nancy were getting along fairly well." 

Lance rolled his eyes. "Nancy is scared of her own shadow. Totally not my type." 

They heard the garage door opening and a few moments later Jarol came in. Becca glanced across toward the utility room. "Edward Jarol, don't you dare spoil that cat." She exclaimed. 

****** ****** ****** 

Lance walked into the fire station the next morning and stared in shock. They'd been invaded by a bunch of loons in Haz-Mat suits. The invaders were corralling and interviewing his co-workers as they walked through the door. 

A woman in one of the white all-encompassing suits came up to him. There was a clipboard in her hand. 

"What the hell is going on?" Lance demanded. 

"We are instigating quarantine procedures. If I could have your name and a list of everyone you've been in contact with in the past three days?" 

"This is about the Legacy Virus." Lance realized. "Someone's test came back positive." 

"Yes, we are attempting to contain the spread and determine how the virus jumped species." 

"Who?" Lance asked. 

"I'm sorry, medical confidentially prevents dispensation of that information. Now if you could give me your name?" 

"I'm Lance Alvers." Lance watched the woman take a nervous step backwards. "I've got it don't I?" he said dully. "Stop harassing everyone okay?" 

"I'm sorry." The woman verified. "But the implications of the disease infecting a…" 

"It didn't happen." Lance said bitterly. "Hey everyone! Call off the damn epidemic procedures! Legacy is still a mutants only problem. No reason for anyone to get excited." 

Lance saw most of the people he knew look at him with expressions of mixed sympathy and relief. The invasion of white-cloaked medical personnel shot him a few curious glances but went on about their business. 

Angrily Lance clenched his fists, his eyes rolled back and the room jolted sharply. "If I've got everyone's attention now!" Lance shouted. He sensed Jarol moving to stand beside him protectively. "Stop acting like it's the fucking end of world! Call who ever started the damn panic and tell them they screwed up. I'm a mutant." Lance sighed. "Don't make the whole mutant/human mess any worse than it always is okay? Don't create another reason for hating us. Its just SOP. Humans don't get Legacy." 

Lance turned to Jarol. "I'm going home okay? You can call off these idiots without me right?" 

"We are trying to institute a quarantine." The woman interrupted. "Until we get new orders we can't allow anyone to leave." 

"What part of I'm a mutant didn't you understand?" Lance demanded clearing his path to the door with a quick tremor to prove his point. 

"Jeremy, go with him." Jarol instructed quietly as Lance stormed out. "I'm going to be dealing with things here most of the day. I'll call Becca, she'll be over as soon as possible but keep an eye on him please." 

"If I know my guys the whole crew will be headed after him." Jeremy said. 

Jarol sighed. "I'll ask them to space things out a little. Damn, I don't want him alone, but crowding him isn't going to help either." 

****** ****** ****** 

The man at the podium slammed a book down. The bang effectively halted all discussion in the room. "I called this special meeting of the Coos Bay chapter of the Friends of Humanity because I have learned that the Mutant issue is not just an East Coast problem, it's not just a California problems, it's not just a Portland problem, it's our problem." 

"One of the people we depend on when we are in trouble. One of our fire fighters is not a person at all. Allow me to introduce Carl Dreshem from our Portland Chapter." 

"Hello, I work with the World Heath Organization. This morning an outbreak of the mutant born disease known as the Legacy virus brought me to your city…" 

****** ****** ****** 

The only sound in the apartment was the drone of the TV. Lance sat on the couch. His eyes were focused somewhere in the distance. He mechanically clicked through the channels with no indication of being aware of what he was doing. 

Jeremy wandered around the apartment quietly straighten things up. Anything to keep busy he thought. 

Becca stood behind the couch. She brushed her fingers through Lance's hair. "Lance, I really wish you'd eat something." She sighed. 

"I'm not hungry." 

"You're just going to make yourself sick." 

"It's a little late to worry about that. I'm already sick." 

"I know dear, but…" 

"It doesn't matter what I do. If you get Legacy you die. That's just what happens." 

"Maybe someone will find a cure. You can't just quit living." 

"Hell!" Jeremy cursed as he stared out the window. "Lance, I think we've got a problem." 

After a moment Lance and Becca joined him. They stared down at the mob forming in the parking lot. "The FOH, great." Lance said darkly. "You two stay here. Right now the thought of dealing with idiots like them really appeals." 

"Lance I don't want you going out there." Becca said. "We'll call the police." 

"I can take care of myself Becca." Lance snapped. "Before I came here I was a part of the first Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I'm not going to let a bunch of bigots push me around." 

"Oh for God's Sake Lance. You were nineteen when I met you. You weren't a terrorist and you were certainly never evil." Becca stated. 

"I'm sick and tired of acting like I need to be scared of morons like them." Lance said. "I should have done this years ago instead of just putting up with them." 

As Lance stepped out of the apartment he sent a strong tremor through the parking lot. He grinned as he watched the FOH members tumble to the ground like bowling pins. "I've lived here for five years!" Lance yelled. "I never hurt anyone! I never used my powers to do anything but save lives! For five years! And you still hate me, attack me? Screw this! My powers weren't meant to protect people. I'm supposed to be a walking natural disaster. Get the hell out of my face while I'm still in the mood to let you go." 

Out of the corner of his eye Lance caught sight of the muzzle of a gun aiming at him. He stamped his foot. A wave of concrete flew toward the shooter. The man was tossed aside like a rag doll a moment before his gun went off. 

"Get out of here!" Lance yelled. Cracks in the pavement radiated out from where he stood. They raced toward the FOH members, threatening to swallow them whole. 

The sound of approaching sirens provided the final blow to the mob's unity. As police cars pulled into the parking lot the FOH members broke ranks and fled the scene. 

"Alvers, you okay?" An officer asked. 

For a moment Lance's mind frame was in the past. He was a part of the Brotherhood again, living in a world where even the good guys looked at cops as unwelcome interlopers. Ineffectual idiots, who were unlikely to be able to differentiate heroes from villains and who just got in the way. Then he recognized the officer as someone he'd seen handling crowd control at some of the fires he'd dealt with. Lance recognized him as someone who worked with him, not against him. 

Lance glanced around the parking lot. The pavement was torn asunder by his powers. Cars were listing into crevasses or tossed about like match box toys. His eyes lit on the window to his apartment and the hole a stray bullet had punched in it. A knot of ice formed in Lance's stomach. "Oh no." He moaned. He shook his head in denial. "Please no." 

Lance dashed back inside to be met at the door by Becca and Jeremy. "Why did you go out there?" Becca scolded as she hugged him tightly. 

"We were both clear of the windows when the gun went off." Jeremy said. 

Lance's knees went weak with relief. 

The police officer walked slowly around the parking lot and surveyed the damage. When he came back to stand over Lance there was something different about his eyes. "You really are a mutie." The officer said. "All the rumors flying around today… I didn't know what to think. I guess you were just defending yourself. Hell, could you have done any more damage? It's always the same with you people. No matter what happens you always manage to turn it into a disaster." 

"Damnit, I don't need this," Lance exclaimed. He pushed past the officer and stalked over to his jeep. With a wave of his hand the ground smoothed itself enough for him to drive out of the lot. A second gesture and the earth heaved beneath the police car and high centered it. 

"Lance wait!" Becca yelled as the jeep spun out. She turned and glared at the officer. "I called you so you could help, not make things worse." 

****** ****** ****** 

It had been several days since Scott and Jean had left on their honeymoon. Several days since Lance had called. Since then Kitty had found it impossible to keep her thoughts from wandering off on tangets. The Institutes' weekly staff meeting ended without her noticing. 

It was a good thing they kept graduating people with no place to go, Kitty thought idly. Every new class of mutants seemed larger than the one that had preceded it. After their numbers exceeded twenty the Bayville School District refused to deal with the influx of mutants that the Institute brought to the area. Over the years they'd found a handful of humans willing to teach at what the citizens of Bayville had dubbed 'Mutant Manor'. Still over ninety percent of the staff was always home grown. Over the years the Institute had expanded from one building to four. As the School's population increased property values in the area dropped sharply. Xavier had ended up buying out most of the neighboring estates as their owners moved away and no one showed interest in the property they left behind. Kitty wasn't sure what they got tired of first, the regularly scheduled anti-Mutant protests and attendant graffiti or the inevitable chaos caused by dozens of young mutants. The students were your typical teenagers in personality: hormonally crazed, excited at the prospect of living away from home, and generally rambunctious. They were also new to their powers and almost every class had at least a few students capable of leveling Bayville if they chose to do so or if they got too careless. 

"Kitty is there something you wish to discuss with me?" Xavier asked. Kitty realized that while she'd been wool gathering everyone except Xavier, Ororo and herself had already left the room. 

Kitty shrugged and glanced away. 

"About Avalanche perhaps?" Xavier suggested. 

"How could you have missed finding him?" Kitty demanded. 

"Cerebro located him eight months after he left Bayville." Xavier said. "It was apparent that he'd left of his own free will so there was no reason for us to intervene." 

"I was worried about him." Kitty exclaimed. 

"Kitty." Ororo said her voice was pitched to calm. "We had reason for not telling you. When I observed him he seemed terribly fragile and the X-Men's record for handling things with delicacy is notoriously poor. I did not believe it was in his best interest to be placed back into circumstance he had chosen to leave behind. 

"If he was hurt we should have helped him." Kitty said. 

"He didn't want our help." Xavier replied. 

"Well this time he called me." Kitty said. "And we are going to finish that conversation." 

****** ****** ****** 

"I'm sorry. I can't help you." Jeremy Bills said coldly. The air in the fire station had taken on a hostile edge the instant Kitty had told them she was looking for Lance. 

"I know he was here. Could you please just…" Kitty started. 

"Miss, I don't know you or your two friends from Adam." Jeremy said. "It's not so much that I can't help you find Lance Alvers, it's that I don't intend to." 

"Fine." Kitty snapped. "I'll find him myself. Todd, Wanda, come on." 

"That went well." Wanda commented as they left the fire station. 

"We know he was here." Todd said. "I was thinking that phone call came from a ghost for a while there." 

"I think something must have happened." Kitty said. "Did you see how tense everyone got when I mentioned Lance? Lets split up and scout around to see if we can figure out what." 

****** ****** ****** 

Wanda held her coffee mug with both hands to keep herself from hexing the group sitting in the booth behind her. 

She'd over heard them talking about a fight with a 'mutie'. Wanda had decided to follow them. She'd also decided that should wouldn't hex them as long as they were freely spilling the beans. She really wanted to hex them. She'd just have to wait till they shut up then she could make sure they didn't know anything else. Just to be sure. 

****** ****** ****** 

Todd chose to hang around the fire station. When he saw a group of people leaving after work he followed them. 

He hung back and listened quietly. What they were saying scared him, but at the same time he was glad Lance had found friends that worried about him. 

****** ****** ****** 

Kitty looked from the cracked, folded pavement to the boarded up window with a bullet hole in it. She thought the chances were better than average that Lance had been there. 

She knocked on the apartment door. When no one answered she walked through it. The apartment was like a neater version of Lance's old room. There were posters from the same movies hung on the walls. The CD's scattered around the stereo came from the same kind of bands. There was a stack of automotive magazines on the coffee table and a guitar carefully leaned against the wall. Of course there were differences as well: Evidence that the apartments owner understood the need to use both a vacuum cleaner and a dishwasher. A calendar with a reminder to pay bills circled in red and several well-worn textbooks on the shelves. 

Kitty found herself transfixed by a picture on the desk. It showed Lance and group of people, friends, standing in front of a pile of rafting gear. Lance was several years older than her mental image of him. His dark hair was plastered to his head and he was laughing. There was no trace of the bitterness that had almost always clouded his features in Bayville. 

Wistfully Kitty brushed her fingers over the picture. She remembered rare moments between them when everything had seemed perfect and Lance had lost his habitual scowl. She remembered a time when she'd hoped those moments could last forever. 

Kitty heard light footsteps coming up the stairs and the sound of a key turning in the lock. She phased into the coat closet. Kitty listened while the other person moved around in the apartment. She knew it wasn't Lance. From the sound of the footsteps she guessed that the other person was a woman. Kitty chastised herself for letting that thought bother her. It had been too long for her to still feel like that about Lance hadn't it? 

She listened to the sounds of packing. Kitty knew she could easily phase through the closet's wall and back out of the apartment. She could knock and walk in like she'd just arrived and ask about Lance. 

There was a pause in the sounds from the apartment. Kitty strained her ears and heard muffled sobs. Without thinking she stepped through the closed door of the closet. Her first thought was relief because the woman staring at her was easily old enough to be Lance's mother. The second was "Oh damn." 

"Shadowkat," Becca exclaimed. Her mouth dropped open as she recognized the X-Man from her powers. She looked down at the stack of pictures she'd taken from Lance's room. Her eyes went even wider than before. Becca's laugh was a trifle hysterical. "All these years Eddy's been teasing him about his celebrity infatuation and you're the girl from his high school dance." 

"Um… hi." Kitty said with a sickly grin and a tentative wave. "I was looking for Lance." 

****** ****** ****** 

After dropping Wanda and Todd off at X-Force's base Kitty flew back to the Institute. She stepped off the X-Jet to find Piotr waiting for her in the hanger. When he saw she'd returned alone a hopeful smile lit his face. Kitty bit back an unhappy sigh. 

"Avalanche did not come back with you." He said. His face was an open book. 

"Please Piotr, I don't want to get into this." Kitty said. "Lance has nothing to with you and I." 

"Kitty. I'm sorry I left. I'm sorry I pushed you away but Illyana's death was something I had to deal with on my own." Piotr said. 

"I know that!" Kitty exclaimed. She felt a pang of sorrow as she remembered the Legacy Virus' first casualty had been Piotr's young sister. "I was just trying to be your friend when I offered to help. I owed you that, but it wasn't what you needed. I understand that, I always did, I was never upset about that. Please don't make me spell this out." 

"Kitty I love you. We belong together." 

"No we don't!" Kitty cried. "You were there for me when I needed you. I'll always be grateful for that. Back then I needed someone to reassure me that I'd made the only choice I could have. I needed someone to tell me over and over again that if I hadn't killed Raynolt he would have killed me then he would have killed all those kids. Eventually though, I got better Piotr. You never wanted to admit that." 

Kitty sighed. "You're the best knight in shining armor that I've ever met but I can't handle being nothing more than your favorite damsel in distress. That's not me. Piotr, because owed you I wanted to make you happy. What we had wasn't good for either of us. Please let it go." 

"You are still in love with him are you not?" 

Kitty leaned into the hanger wall. Dramatically she let her head thump against it. When she faced Piotr again there was an angry light in her eyes. "Maybe I am." She said. "Maybe I want to see him again. See with my own eyes that he's alive. Maybe then I'll know how I feel about him. Lance was the first person I ever fell in love with and he was the first person I ever buried. I'm not sure how I feel about him. I just want to see him." 

"Piotr, you and I dated and broke up and tried again more than once. We'd finally realized that it was best if we were just friends when you left. Nothing has changed between us since you came back." 

"Lance and I got in fight and we never spoke again. Then he was gone and I thought he was dead. Right now a part of me is so mad I could strangle him. At the same time hearing his voice made me want to dance. I got jealous at the thought of him being with someone else. I just found out he was diagnosed with Legacy the day after he called and there's a part of me that says I don't want to find him because I've already grieved for him and moved on. That hurt really bad and maybe I'm a little scared to go through it again. And he up and disappeared again. I don't know if he wants to be found." 

"So maybe I am still in love with Lance Alvers. It's going to take me a while to figure that one out. Not to mention what I want to do about it if I am. I've got more than enough relationship chaos right now without looking for more." 


	6. Stryfe's Legacy

**Stryfe's Legacy** Disclaimer: Characters are the property of Marvel, I'm just playing with them, I promise to put them back later. 

Thanks for the feedback: Pandora, Dee Saylors 

Raynold: Is an original character. In X-Treme #25 Kitty makes reference to having killed someone, specifically to save a friend. I don't know what cannon story that line refers to (too many holes in my collection :)) so I just made up a quick backstory about a situation that forced Kitty to kill someone. Also Evo-Piotr can never have to place in Kitty's life that he had in 616 since he wasn't her knight and first love who made her feel safe while she was making the transition from normal 13 year old to a member of the X-Men, so instead I had him be the person to see her through a tramatic event in her past.

Lance spotted a comfortable looking boulder a few feet off the trail and decided now was as good a time as any for a break. He leaned back against the stone and took in the view. To his left the Rocky Mountains stood tall and proud. Snow shimmered on their peaks as the sun ruthlessly cut through the thin mountain air. To his right he could see the beginning of the Great Plains. Flat emptiness stretched to the horizon. The city of Boulder was nestled in the shadow of the rather large hill he was climbing. Once he would have called it a mountain but it's nearby and much larger cousins put it to shame. 

"Tired already Lance?" Ricky, one of the guys he worked with at the BLM's range fire department, asked. 

Lance made a face at him. "I'll beat you to the top." He challenged. 

"I'll believe it when I see it." Ricky called back. He continued on up the trail. 

"Are you really alright?" Carl Diller asked when the others were out of ear shot. "You know my sister'll kill me if I don't do a proper job of watching out for you." 

"Becca told me she'd have my hide if I didn't listen to you." Lance admitted. "It's nothing. I just haven't gotten used to the altitude yet." 

"You've been living here for a month now." Carl said. "That excuse doesn't hold much water." 

Lance stood up and determinedly started up the trail again at a quick march. Carl shook his head and took a few jogging steps to catch up. "Lance will you please tell me what's wrong. Is it…" 

"It's just the altitude." Lance insisted stubbornly. "There's nothing I can do about it anyway. Learning to live with it is the only choice I've got." 

Carl sighed and dropped back to give Lance some space. He'd met the young man several years before when his sister and her husband had basically adopted him. Becca had been dragging Lance along to family get togethers since the boy had been nineteen. Lance had always determinedly stayed on the outskirts of any gathering. Carl had liked the young man well enough but never really thought much about him. 

A month ago Carl's brother-in-law had call him up and asked if he could quietly find Lance a job in the BLM's range fire department. Ed had explained why the kid needed to get away from Coos Bay and why it was best if he weren't put in crisis situations that happened in the middle of a city. Carl had been stunned. Never in his wildest dreams would have imagined that Lance Alvers was a mutant. He'd seen stories about them on the news. The quiet young man who accompanied his sister's family more often than not just didn't fit his mental image of a mutant. 

He'd heard the worry in Becca's voice as she told him that if Lance didn't have a place to run to he'd blindly run away. She was afraid he'd go off a cliff if he were left to himself. Becca and Ed looked at the young man as family. Despite his uncertainty about mutants Carl didn't have the heart to disappoint them. 

Two days later Lance's things arrived by FedEx. He'd left Coos Bay in such a rush he hadn't thought to pack. The following day Lance himself had shown up on the Dillers' doorstep. He'd reverted to being exactly as Carl remembered him the first time they'd met. The only thing that was different was this time Carl knew why there was so much wariness in the younger man's eyes and he realized that he sympathized. No wonder the kid looked hunted. He'd been run out of his home and his life simply for getting sick. For being born different. 

Lance didn't talk about the disease that had catalyzed his departure from Oregon. Once a week he drove down to Denver so that the physician at the mutant clinic there could monitor the progress of his condition. Still Carl could help but notice that Lance got tired more easily than someone with his life style should. 

Lance always said it was just the altitude. 

****** ****** ****** 

Hank McCoy cleared the counter in front of him with a violent sweep of his arm. Slides, cultures and a microscope clattered to the floor. Cecelia Reyes, the X-Men's resident doctor, glanced up from the article she was reading. "Not a successful test?" she asked sarcastically. 

"What was your first clue?" Hank snapped. 

"Talk to me," Cecelia said. "I know you've been researching this disease since the first know case and I'm a general practitioner who didn't even know she was a mutant until a few months ago, but it might help. You've studied the Legacy Virus; I studied medicine. A broader outlook could uncover something." 

"And Moira has both general and specific knowledge and it does us no good whatsoever." Hank exclaimed. 

"Then feel free to take your temper-tantrum down to the Danger room," Cecelia replied tartly. 

Hank paused. For a moment he stood still, eyes closed. He pinched the bridge of his nose then he sighed. "My apologies my dearest Dr. Reyes. It has been an exceptionally frustrating week." 

"Help me with the next round of physicals and all will be forgiven." Cecelia replied with a wave. 

"I'd just as soon referee Tabitha and Ray's next lover's spat." Hank replied with a shutter. 

He sat back and popped his knuckles. "What do we know about the Legacy Virus? Not enough obviously. There are four stages: During the first stage the symptoms are minimal. A loss of stamina, feeling run down or excessively tired. During this stage the patient's body is still trying to fight the infection. A simple blood test can detect the presence of the virus. The second stage begins when the virus successfully grafts itself on to the genome and begins rewriting that which makes us mutants. At this point a DNA analysis is needed for diagnosis. It becomes more difficult for the patient to maintain control of their powers. Mutant abilities may begin expressing themselves in new ways or their strength may increase. The third stage is marked by the appearance of painful lesions. Second stage symptoms become more severe. During the final stage the victim's powers increase exponentially in strength, control becomes non-existent. Eventually the body is burned out and death occurs. That is assuming that the victim isn't killed first to contain the damage." 

Cecelia grimaced. 

"Moira and I believe the key is a vaccine of some sort. Something that will prevent the virus from attaching itself to the genome. Of course to develop such a vaccine we need data. At the school and in as many other locations as possible we offer routine screening for the disease. Despite our efforts only a handful of people are diagnosed before the third stage. Almost every mutant experiences power surges as their powers develop. The second stage symptoms are easily written off as being part of the a natural development in their powers rather than something more sinister." 

Hank sighed. "Outside of the mutant community there is limited interest in curing the disease. Almost eighty percent of the known mutant population is under twenty. The vast majority of the earlier generations of mutants are either vigilantes or criminals. We have very few scientists and doctors. Sinister is the only researcher from the 'dark side' who shares his data. I dread thinking about how he obtains it. It's times likes these that truly make me realize what a terribly young species we are. And just how strained our relationship with our parent species has become." 

****** ****** ****** 

Lance could barely hear the voice on the other end of the CB over the roar of the flames. "We are cut off!" He yelled. "Give me a direction! Where's the closest safe harbor?" 

"Goddamn, idiot environmentalists." Ricky cursed. 

Lance vehemently agreed. Burnt out tree stumps provided habitat. There were rules about knocking the damn things down. They'd followed the rules. One of the trees they'd left standing had fallen by itself, right across a firebreak. It became a bridge for the flames and now the fire had trapped Lance and six other guys. 

"Highway… miles North…" The CB crackled. Lance nodded to himself. It had been months since he'd used his powers, since the day he'd been told he'd entered the second stage of the Legacy Virus. Normally his powers didn't have a range of miles, but maybe this once the Legacy Virus could save lives instead of taking them. 

"Okay guys, we're going north." Lance yelled. "I've got a way to clear a little breathing room for us. Just don't freak when things get a little weird okay?" 

The group worked their way toward the highway until they reached a dead end. Lance knelt and pressed his hands to the earth. His eyes rolled back until only the whites showed. A wave of soil crashed over the fire. 

Lance fought to control it, to use the tremors to open a road to safety. The virus rewriting his DNA had other ideas. Lance gave up on controlling the direction of the quake. He allowed it to radiate outward in all directions as if he were the epicenter a natural quake. Instead of forcing the quake to make a road north he focused his efforts on controlling the magnitude. Lance forced it to turn over the topsoil and bury the flames rather than going deep. His powers wanted to crack the earth's crust and tear it asunder. Lance demanded that the quake stayed tame. 

It didn't want to stop. Lance screamed in frustration as his power willfully disobeyed him. He bit the inside of his cheek. The warm coppery taste of blood filled his mouth. He clenched his fists. He was in control! 

Finally the quake subsided. Lance opened his eyes to see the rest of his team huddled together staring at him with shock and no little fear. For over a mile in every direction the fire was gone. It had been replaced with acres of freshly turned soil. 

Lance swayed dizzily as he stood. "W-we've s-still gotta g-get out of here." He said and realized he was shaking so badly that he was stammering. 

Lance took a faltering step forward. Ricky bit back his nerves and slid under Lance's arm. "Mike, we've got plenty of room to get a helicopter in here." He said. "See if they can find us one." 

****** ****** ****** 

The flames leapt at the X-Men with malicious intent. Glimpses of mythical creatures could be scene gamboling in among the flames. 

"What is that lunatic up to this time?" Rogue demanded. Ice shot from her hands to form a barricade around the flames. 

"Why y' lookin' at me cherie?" Gambit asked. 

"He was your teammate once." Angel said with a frown at the Cajun. 

"Dat be two teams an' a life time back." Gambit said. "To please mon amour I am an X-Man now. 'Sides like y' said: Pyro's only playing with a handful of cards an' half of dose be jokers. Nevah did know why he did much of anything." 

"I don't care why Pyro's doing this. It's our job to stop him." Shadowkat said. "Angel, you said there was too much cover to get to him. Can you fly me over him?" 

"You got it." Shadowkat stretched out her arms and the winged mutant caught her wrists then pulled her aloft. 

They soared over acres of flames, all twisting and writhing under the unnatural influence of Pyro's power. To the west the sky was dark with thunderheads as Storm fought to protect a mid-western city that was threatened by the blaze. In the east a wall of ice, Bobby's work, prevented any further spread of the fire. Somewhere down there Kitty knew Jean, Scott and Amara where were working to evacuate families from rural homes. 

When they were over the heart of the fire she ordered. "Cannonball special." 

Angel tucked his wings in close to his body and dove toward the ground. A few feet above the rocky gully where Pyro cowered he spread his wings and snapped his arms forward. He tossed Kitty toward the Flame-tamer while he soared back into the sky. 

Kitty phased through an overhanging ledge of rock then she tucked and rolled to come to her feet behind Pyro. What she saw shocked her. Kitty didn't see a manically laughing villain with a flame-thrower on his back that she'd expected. She found Pyro on his knees. The Australian's hands were burning. He held them as far from his body as he could. In a broken voice he pled with them. "Stop. Please stop." 

Kitty gasped. Pyro turned toward her. The lesions spreading up his neck and across his cheek branded him as a victim of the Legacy Virus. 

"I can't stop it." He said sadly. "Got rid of all me flammables and I still can't stop it." 

"John, trust me." Kitty said. She walked toward the fire-tamer. Helplessly Pyro watched her approach. 

Kitty grabbed Pyro's shoulders and phased him. She pushed his hands into the stone beneath them then stepped back. "No oxygen, no fire." She said. "Now I need you to focus. You've got to stop this." 

"I can't." Pyro cried. Around them the flames changed color as the temperature rose. The rock walls of the gully glowed eerily under the blue light of the fire. 

"John, you've got to. You can do this." Kitty pled. 

Time dragged on. Kitty felt the sweat dry on her skin as heat stroke set in. She caught a flash of movement above them. Angel soared into the sky as Gambit plunged through the air. 

The agile Cajun landed on top of the outcropping Kitty had phased through then somersaulted into the gully. There was a brace of charged cards in his hand. 

"No!" Kitty screamed. "He's trying to stop it." 

Gambit took in the scene at a glance. "De time for tryin's up." He said. Before Kitty could react Gambit launched a roundhouse kick. It connected with Pyro's jaw. Because his hands were anchored to the ground there was no way for the fire-tamer to roll with the blow. Gambit's kick snapped Pyro's neck as surely as a hangman's noose. 

"You heartless bastard!" Kitty cried kicking Gambit in the stomach. "It wasn't his fault." Around them the flames faded back to orange as they cooled. 

Gambit caught her wrists and pinned her against the wall of the gully. "Listen to me femme." 

Kitty phased through him and contained her attack. 

Gambit backed away. He restrained himself to blocking and dodging Kitty's blows. "Y' member dat concrete school gym Jeanie was usin' to shelter de ones she 'vacuated? It be safe 'nough for a normal fire… when he turned up de heat it be nothin' but an oven. Dere was already a babe dead and an elderly couple 'bout to follow." 

Kitty stopped. Her eyes still burned with fury. 

Angel landed on the outcropping. "He had no choice Kitty." Angel said. His eyes became distant as he thought of his beloved Betsy Braddock, sequestered behind thick psi-shields. It was the only way they had left to keep her uncontrollable telepathic abilities from destroying the minds around her. "Pyro should have asked help before it came to this." 

****** ****** ****** 

Lance let the paper drop to the table. He walked to the window. He'd never met St. John Allerdyce. Pietro had though. The speed demon and the fire-starter had apparently hit it off big time. 

When Quicksilver came back from the first, disastrous confrontation with Apocalypse every other sentence that came out of his mouth had started with Pyro. Todd and Fred had concluded Pietro was in love and teased him mercilessly. Several months earlier Lance probably would have joined in. Pay back for the teasing he'd endured when Pietro had realized he liked Kitty. That's what he would have done, if it had been several months earlier. As it was Lance had been too deeply sunken into depression. Teasing Pietro would have been too much effort, mostly he'd just been irritated with all three of them over the noise. 

Pyro was dead now. Killed by the X-Men. Before he'd died Pyro caused a fire that burned over thirty thousand acres of farmland and was responsible for ten deaths. Pyro had the Legacy Virus. 

Lance rubbed his hand over the open lesions on his arm. He walked into his bedroom and picked up the bottle of painkillers on his dresser. Lance's doctor had prescribed them when he entered the third stage of the virus. Lance hated taking them. They screwed with his head too much when he was on duty so he made due with Tylenol. The only reason he ever used them was that he needed a few good nights of sleep a week to keep functioning. His doctor was always amazed when he didn't ask for the prescription to be refilled. 

Lance counted out the remaining capsules. After a few moments he went into the bathroom and grabbed a mostly empty Tylenol bottle. He swept the painkillers into the new bottle then tucked it behind his picture of the original Brotherhood and X-Men at Camp Ironback. He wasn't in any hurry and he wanted to do this right when he did it. It would be easy enough to get more pills. Hell it would probably make his doctor worry less if he acted like he was actually using them like he was supposed to. 

****** ****** ****** 

The X-Men watched as Beast bounced about the room like an over grown chimpanzee while explaining his findings. "I thought… Nay I hoped that what we had learned might have provided us with a vaccine. Never in my wildest dreams…" 

"Spill it Hank." Logan growled impatiently. 

"A cure my surely friend." Beast pronounced. "You are looking at a cure for Legacy." 

"A cure?" Piotr asked. 

Beast had been hanging by his toes from the ceiling fan. He dropped to the floor and walked up to Piotr. "Yes Piotr, after so long we are only one step away from a cure." 

"One step away… Then what we have here is what we have always had: Nothing." 

"Piotr!" Kitty exclaimed. 

"My friend, the only problem left is that Stryfe incorporated his twisted soul into the cure as thoroughly as he did the disease." Hank said. "I refuse to give his final human sacrifice. I will find a way to make this cure work without a martyr. All though if Stryfe himself were still among the living I'd be sorely tempted to inject this preliminary cure into him." 

"What do you mean?" Piotr asked. 

Hank sighed. "The final step to complete the cure is to inject it into a mutant host. Like the disease the cure will catalyze upon the first use of their powers. Then and only then will the retrovirus become active. However the catalyzation process produces a secondary product: A toxin that will kill the host. I just have to find a way to catalyze the cure without taking a life in the process." 

Piotr watched intently as Hank placed the serum back in his lab and walked away with the others. 

"Coming Piotr?" Cecelia Reyes called as he lingered in the lab. 

Piotr shut off the lights and followed her out of the lab. He watched the rest of the X-Men split up. Each was lost in their own thoughts. They followed their individual inclinations as they dealt with the mix of hope and frustration. When he was alone Piotr turned around and headed back to the lab. 

He filled a syringe with the serum. As he held it up, staring into its depths a small hand closed on his wrist. "Piotr, Hank will find a way. This isn't it." Kitty said. 

"How did you know?" He asked. 

"I know you." Kitty said. 

"It is fitting is it not? My sister was the first victim of this disease. I will be the last." 

"No." Kitty protested. "You've got to let Hank try to find another way. At least you have to give him the chance." 

"My little Katya, how many more victims should we allow this disease to have while Beast looks for a cure that satisfies his sense of ethics?" Colossus asked. "I would have sacrificed anything for Illyana, my Snowflake. I did sacrifice so much to protect her: I gave up my honor to keep her safe from Magneto. It was for nothing. When I finally found her there was nothing I could do to keep her. I would have given anything, even my life to save hers but I could only hold her as she died. Now I can finally stop the thing that killed her. Forgive me Katya I must do this." 

Kitty lunged. She tried to snatch the syringe away before he could depress the plunger. Piotr shoved her away and injected himself with the serum. "I am truly sorry, but this is the right thing." He said then shifted forms. 

****** ****** ****** 

Lance felt like a shaken up can of soda. His powers were building under his skin and the slightest falter in his control would bring about an avalanche of destruction. 

It was time. He thought about the stash of painkillers in his room. After today's visit to the doctor's he'd have eighty-three capsules. He'd take them when got home. 

There were letters sitting on the dresser, addressed and ready to send. To Becca and Ed Jarol, to Carl Diller, to Jeremy Bills to Ricky Hanks and few others who'd been friends and who'd hear what he'd done. He wanted to explain things to them. He'd thought about writing or calling Bayville, Kitty, Todd, anyone else who was still around from the old days. He decided against it. Why put himself back in their lives just to take himself out days later? If they heard he trusted them to understand. They knew what Legacy did to a person. They all know what his powers were. They'd understand why he couldn't risk holding on to the bitter end. 

Lance walked into the medical clinic. He sat the empty bottle on the counter. "Hey Jen, I need another refill." He told the girl who doubled as a receptionist and pharmacist. 

She smiled brilliantly at him. "We've got something a lot better than those." She said. "We've got a cure. The retrovirus just arrived last night. Legacy's been cured." 

There was a soft thump as Lance dropped into the nearest chair. He stared up at the girl, disbelief in his eyes. "Really?" He asked. 


	7. Death of a Nation

**Death of a Nation** Disclaimer: Characters are the property of Marvel, I'm just playing with them, I promise to put them back later. 

Thanks for the feedback: Risty, me, CrimsonCoyote, Joey1, Rageful Jewel, Steven P. P, Pandora 

Notes: Sorry for any confusion due to the rewrite, I just wasn't happy with a couple of things. 

Cecelia Reyes: She creates an impenitrable personal force field sort of like Unus the Untouchable, only in her case it was more of a defensive reaction rather than something she has control over. She's much more defined by being a doctor than by being a mutant. 

I can't believe I forgot Sam :(. I've been trying to work in mentions of all of the characters, I remembered X23 (who I dislike) and forgot Sam. 

Xi'an Mahn Coy stood on the sidewalk outside of her apartment. She stared up into the spreading branches of an old oak tree with her fists planted firmly on her hips. "Well how did you get up there?" She demanded. 

Nga and Leong, her eight-year-old siblings, glanced at each other then down at Xi'an. "We climbed." 

"Then you can climb back down." Xi'an insisted. 

"Nuh-hu!" The twins protested violently. 

"Look, I'll help you." Xi'an offered touching her fingertips to her forehead. 

"No! We'll fall." Nga yelled. 

Xi'an sighed. She was certain if they could climb up they were physically capable of climbing down but she didn't want to use her powers to force them to do something against their will. 

The young man she'd seen coming and going from the apartment below hers joined her beneath the tree. His dark brown eyes sparkled with amusement as he looked up into the branches of the tree. "Do you need help getting them down?" He asked. 

Xi'an shot another glare up at the twins. "I thought they were monkeys. It turns out they're just a couple of 'fraidy cats." 

"You're in luck. Lance Alvers at your service and it's my professional duty to remove cats from trees." Lance laughed as the twins sulked. "Do you have a ladder?" 

"If I had a ladder do you think I'd be standing down here?" Xi'an demanded irritably. 

"Point taken." Lance said. "We'll just have to get creative. Hold on a second." 

Lance jogged away. He returned to park his latest jeep under the tree a few seconds later. "That should do." He said. Then he climbed up to stand balanced between the roll bar and the top of the windshield. "Could you two come down just a little on your own?" Lance asked. 

"No!" Leong exclaimed. Nga nodded in agreement with his sister. They watched Lance's efforts with fascination. 

In an attempt to reach up a little higher Lance transferred all his weight to the roll bar. "You're going to fall." Xi'an warned. 

"Everything's under perfect…." 

Lance sat up rubbing his head where it had hit the jeep's tailgate. "I'm fine, nothing to worry about. According to everyone I've got a hard head." 

Xi'an bit back a laugh. She glanced around and saw a thick sheet of ply board leaning against the dumpster. She dragged it over and with Lance's help set it on top of the jeep to provide a solid platform to stand on. 

Lance climbed back on top of the jeep. "Guys are you sure can't climb down just a little? Please?" He asked. The twins shook their heads. 

Lance sighed. He grabbed a branch and pulled himself up into the tree. "I'll hand them down to you." He told Xi'an. 

She nodded then took his place on top of the jeep. Lance found a secure perch in the tree. He reached up to lift first Nga then Leong down to their older sister. Once the kids were down Lance jumped out of the tree. 

"Thank you." Xi'an said. 

"Oh, no problem." Lance replied, a little embarrassed. "I better move the jeep before the manager starts screaming about it being on the sidewalk." 

"Thanks." Xi'an repeated and the twins grinned, they'd enjoyed all the fuss their antics had stirred up. Lance started the jeep. The radio came on as the engine caught. "… Genosha, the self-proclaimed mutant homeland was destroyed." 

Xi'an put a hand on the steering wheel and kept Lance from leaving as the report continued. She needn't have bothered. Lance was frozen in shock. They listened silently as the reports continued to roll in. "Super-Sentinel robots seen over the Island… Huge explosions seen in the capital city of Hammer Bay… No communications coming out… Radiation levels off the charts…" 

"They'll have television coverage." Xi'an said maybe fifteen minutes later. Lance nodded. He turned off the jeep and followed Xi'an and the twins to their apartment. 

Every channel covered the destruction of the island nation of Genosha. Sixteen million people wiped out in the space of a few minutes. A thriving country reduced to a barren mass grave. The single largest concentration of mutants on the planet decimated. A new generation of Sentinels, ones that gave new meaning to the phrase unstoppable, unleashed. The whole world held its breath and waited for the other shoe to drop. 

Government officials from every country disavowed involvement and expressed their horror. Members of the X-Men, Alpha Flight, X-Factor and other mutant groups pled for the world's mutants to be patient, not to seek reprisals; that the guilty parties would be found. The FOH and off-shot organizations like Purity claimed they had no knowledge of the attack while praising it as the start of humanity's return to glory. 

When reporters gained access to graphic footage of the destruction via numerous black-box type cameras in Genosha Xi'an sent the twins out of the room. She and Lance watched the genocide of their species speechless with horror. 

Xi'an glanced at the clock. "Work!" she exclaimed. "I have to call. I have to tell them I'm sick of something." 

"They don't know?" Lance asked. 

"Nga and Leong don't have anyone else. I can't go around painting a target on my back." Xi'an said defensively. 

"Yeah, I don't exactly publish the news myself. The people I work with know. It was either show 'em or watch while we all died." Lance said. 

A while later Lance stood up and announced. "I'm going to go down to my place and grab some stuff for dinner. We can shut that thing off for a while and do something normal for an hour or so." 

Xi'an looked surprised. "Yes, that does sound good. I know Nga and Leong would be happy to help." 

Lance smiled. "I'll be right back. If you don't mind my cat's probably getting lonely." 

"I'm sure the twins won't mind." Xi'an said. 

After dinner Xi'an asked. "Did you know anyone living in Genosha?" 

"I don't know that many mutants." Lance said. "I keep track of fewer… Pietro would have been there. Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff. Damn. Damn idiot! Why did he ever have to be loyal to that lunatic?" 

Xi'an looked startled. "I know a few people who lived there." She said. "They weren't Magneto's supporters. They were just tired of fighting, tired of hiding all the time. They thought it would be safe to be a mutant there." 

****** ****** ****** 

Kitty filled her suitcase and called a taxi. As she left the Institute Storm settled to the earth beside her. "Kitty is something wrong?" She asked. "Why are you leaving in the middle of the night?" 

"Yeah, something's wrong." Kitty exclaimed. "I'm twenty-two years old and I attend more funerals for my friends than weddings. I am sick of everyone dying for the cause, it's not worth it." 

"When we go out to fight the latest bad guy to protect humanity I don't care if we win anymore. The only picture left in my mind of humanity is the mob of protesters who meet in front of the gates every Saturday." 

"Kitty…" Storm tried to interrupt. 

"I've fought for Xavier's dream of co-existence since I was barely fifteen years old. I've watched it die a slow, ugly death. Since Genosha even Xavier's lost faith in it. Look at us Storm. We're huddling in our mutant enclaves and waiting for them to die out. All the Professor hopes for any more is to stave off open warfare until it's too late for them to fight back. We used to believe that we were all human, that our powers didn't change that. I want to remember what that felt like." 

"Where will you go?" Storm asked. 

"I got accepted to the University of Colorado." Kitty said. "I'm tired of being a soldier. I want to have a real life. I've been Shadowkat for so long I've forgotten who Kitty Pryde was. I want to remember what it feels like to interact with people who didn't grow up at the Mansion. I want to make friends with people who are more likely to die of old age than of violence. Storm I need to get away from this place before it suffocates me." 

****** ****** ****** 

[b]Several Months Later[/b] 

Xi'an's expression darkened with concern. Purity was targeting Dr. Benes' Astrophysics Department. Their websight claimed the class was harboring a mutant. Purity was right. Xi'an hadn't even known her old friend was on campus until they made her a target. "Kitty be careful." She said. 

Xi'an was just about to start looking for Kitty's address when a knock called her to the door. "Lance, you look like you're in a hurry." She said. 

He grinned endearingly. "Could I ask a favor?" 

"No promises." 

"My team just got called to help out with the Morning Side Blaze. Could you pick up my mail and feed the cat for the next two weeks or so?" 

"Of course. You be careful." 

"Thanks. It'll be good to get out. Town has been so dull lately." 


	8. Reunited

**Reunited** Disclaimer: Characters are the property of Marvel, I'm just playing with them, I promise to put them back later. 

Thanks for the feedback :) 

Risty: Yep, it's Karma. I moved Mekanix out of Chicago because it didn't work for Lance's half of the story, and into Boulder, because I spent a year there trying out Grad school (The ChemE department. Loved the city, hated my thesis adviser). 

Steven P. P: Morrison who writes "New" has a real fondness for huge events. Strangely enough :) despite the massive devestation, every character with a extended history who should have been in Genosha somehow survived. Emma Frost developed a secondary mutation that let her survive (I hate that plot device, it's just phrase for letting writers give characters new powers with no explaination). Polaris went nuts but managed to survive. Pietro had a falling out with Magneto and was out of the country. The only real character who definately died there is Kitty's father. I think the storyline shook up the X-Men's universe in a good way in terms of the stories produced. 

sanna: Thanks for the feedback, there is a way to get automatice notification when a story updates. 

Dusty: That was the plan, but my muse had other ideas. :) 

Pandora: Sorry for the confusion. Xi'an is a mutant, her code name is Karma and her power is being able to possess people, she's spent some time at the Institute, but chose to leave to raise her younger siblings. I should have included mentions of Genosha in with the other 'cliff notes happenings'. Basically it was originally a country that used mutants as slave labor. There was a lot of chaos there after that government was over-thrown. Eventually Magneto blackmailed the UN into giving him the country to turn it into a mutant homeland (along the same lines as Isreal). The UN's hope was that dealing with a popluation that was having severe problems with Legacy would keep Magneto too busy to be a terrorist. In 616 Pietro joined Magneto there to act as his conscious (cause in 616 Pietro is definately one of the good guys), in my story Pietro would have gone because he never really broke free of his father's shadow. 

Quick reminder I rewrote the end of the first chapter: Lance hadn't noticed her yet. Kitty found herself remembering a phone call out of the blue one day. She couldn't believe he was here, now, after all this time. She couldn't believe what she was going to do. She quietly slipped into the booth behind him and put her hands over his eyes. "Guess who?" she whispered in his ear. 

_When you waked up behind me and covered my eyes _

And whispered in my ear, guess who 

I rattled off names like I really didn't know 

But all along I knew it was you. 

Once they'd touched neither could bare to let go. 

Lance's hands had come up to cover hers. It felt like a caress when he slid his hands up her arms. Kitty had shivered then giggled as he hauled her over the back of the booth and into his lap. 

"Hi Kitty." His voice mixed delight and disbelief and a shyness that was totally at odds with his actions. 

Kitty smiled up at him. "You forgot to call." She reproved gently. 

Lance glanced away. His skin heated with embarrassment. "Becca told me you came looking. At first I thought it was better if I didn't. Then I thought it was too late." 

"It's never too late." Kitty said as she reached up to cradle his cheek. Lance turned into her touch. For a moment they simply stared at one another transfixed. 

"Don't tell me, we're seeing the reason why it practically takes blackmail to set you up on a date." Ricky commented watching the pair stare into each other's eyes. "Hey Lance, anyone home? Are you going to introduce us or just stare into her eyes all night?" 

"That's Ricky, don't mind him he's an idiot. Carl, Morgan, Bill, Michael and Tony. Everyone this is Kitty." Lance said barely glancing away from the girl in his arms. 

Kitty couldn't repress a grin at the information that Lance wasn't dating. "Hi." She said. "Nice to meet you. Lance you never did get around to telling me what you've been doing." 

"Kitty?" Dylan called as he noticed the bar was unmanned. He saw Kitty and Lance and the way they were totally lost in each other. "Oh never mind, I can manage." 

_And the longer we talked the more we laughed _

And wondered why we didn't last 

It had been a long time but later last night 

Baby we caught up real fast. 

Moonlight glittered off the creek's waters as Kitty and Lance walked along the trail beside it. "So you really like fire fighting?" Kitty asked. 

"I just kind of fell into it but yeah, I really love it." Lance said. "It probably sounds really strange to you, but I like helping people. It's nice to have the chance to use my powers for something good once and a while. I know it's not saving the world or anything, but…" 

"I think it's really cool and totally you." Kitty interrupted. "You always did help when you saw someone in trouble. Remember Bobby, Sam and Jubilee's joyriding? Even though you hated planes and they were getting you into all sorts of trouble you still wanted to protect them." 

"I still hate flying and insane pilots. I let one of the guys who does water drops give me a lift once." Lance said with a shudder. "How'd you end up here?" 

"I'm attending college, for real this time. Well that's what it feels like. When I got my bachelors it was like all I did was show up for the tests. I still lived at Xavier's. Being an X-Man meant my schedule was totally nuts so I'd get most of my lectures on tape. Once we teamed up with the Fantastic Four and on the flight home I made Reed Richards help me with my homework. It ended up in this huge fight between him and my P. Chem. professor. Reed was right of course, but that wasn't what was in the textbook. Anyways I spent zero time on campus and I never got to know anyone or be, you know, a college student. This time I'm getting the full experience." 

"And bartending in your spare time." Lance commented with a grin. 

Kitty rolled her eyes. "What I want to know is why you didn't walk in months ago. Most of our clientele are firefighters or cop." 

"The structural fire crews." Lance specified. "I haven't done that since Coos Bay, with Legacy it was better that way. I could use my powers on range fires without worrying so much about precision. You really fought Sentinels in Boulder? I was just telling Xi'an, my neighbor, that things were getting boring here." 

"Xi'an Coy Mahn ? You know Karma? Oh my God, small world huh?" Kitty exclaimed. Lance nodded, he looked confused. "She studied at the Institute for a couple of months. We got hit by bad guys about three times while she was there then Nga and Leong got kidnapped. Xi'an decided it was better to live somewhere less exciting." 

"I don't blame her." Lance said. 

"Yeah," Kitty replied, "Xavier never promised us a normal life, or that we'd be safe." 

Over the course of several hours they migrated back to Lance's apartment. "Umm, Kitty… do you mind if I grab a quick shower?" Lance asked blushing. "I'm kind of filthy. The plan was to grab some food and a few drinks, I wasn't expecting to end up on a date." 

"So this is a date?" Kitty asked innocently. 

"We could go out to dinner tomorrow or something. Like a real date." Lance stammered. 

"Then that'll be two dates." Kitty said. "Which sounds good to me." 

"Yes!" Lance exclaimed. "Umm, about…" 

"Go ahead. You're a very cute mess, but I'm sure you're tired of being covered in dirt." Kitty replied. "I like the clay though, it's like when we first met." 

Lance shook his head. "It took me forever to get that spray paint off. You're sure you won't get bored?" 

"I've got all your stuff to snoop around in." Kitty said. 

"Uh, sure…" 

"I won't… much." 

Lance ducked into his room. Kitty turned on the TV. 

"Kitty?" Lance yelled several minutes later. 

"Yeah?" 

"Just checking that you're really here." 

Kitty laughed delightedly. 

Lance reappeared short time later. Kitty appreciated his lack of a shirt even if she did have to repress a shiver at the sight of the fading Legacy scars that curled around his arms and shoulders. They told her just how close he'd come to dying. For months after Pyro's death, she'd had nightmares where it was Lance who was summarily executed. Lance smiled and started to say something only to be interrupted by a yawn. 

Kitty realized it was well past midnight. "I should go home and let you sleep." She said. 

Lance caught her hand. "You don't have to go." He protested. He swallowed another yawn and tried to look awake. 

Kitty slipped into his arms as if it were the most natural thing in the world. They stood embracing for a long moment. Kitty realized Lance was nearly asleep on his feet and pushed him toward the couch. He lost his balance but not his hold on her. They crashed onto the couch in a tangle. "You're sure you don't want me to go?" Kitty asked, she wanted to hear him say no again. 

"I like you right here." Lance replied as they rearranged themselves to get comfortable. "I always crash after a fire, don't mind it." 

"Yeah, when the adrenalin runs out…" Kitty said knowingly. She twined her arms around Lance's neck. 

Lance smiled sleepily. "You work in a bar called 'Hell's Belles'." He teased. 

"Aren't you over that yet?" Kitty asked lightly. 

Lance thought about it for a moment. Either that or he drifted off, Kitty thought with a grin. "Nope." He traced the tattoo on her shoulder. "Shadowkat of the X-Men with a tattoo working in a bar called 'Hell's Belles'. Not going to be getting over that any time soon." 

"I'm not an X-Man anymore." Kitty said pulling away slightly. 

"It's a cute tattoo." Lance said by way of apology. "I didn't know you liked dragons." 

"It's a long story." Kitty said. She relaxed back against him. 

"I like those. Keeps you from going anywhere while you tell them." Lance murmured. Kitty chuckled quietly. There was no way he was going to be awake much longer. It didn't seem like a bad idea at all, Kitty decided. She felt happy and warm. Falling asleep right here was a much better idea than going home. 

_Well now I'm not saying that we solved overnight _

Every way that we went wrong 

Oh, but what I'm seeing I'd sure love seeing 

Every morning from now on. 

Light streaming in the apartment as dawn broke woke Kitty the next morning. Quietly she slid out of Lance's arms and went to stand at the window. Still asleep Lance made a soft sound of complaint as the cold morning air invaded the space where she's been. It was endearing Kitty thought as she pulled a blanket over him. So many years apart and still everything just seemed to click. Maybe even better than before. She liked the grown-up Lance. He seemed more comfortable in his skin, less defensive, not angry anymore. Despite being a mutant he'd been able to live like a normal person for years. Kitty made a face. She hadn't been in Boulder for a whole term and she'd already fought Sentinels and had been nearly blown up by Purity members. She wondered if she somehow attracted that stuff. Then she shook the thought off. It would take time, but she was going to build a life away from the super-heroing. 

"Good morning." Lance said. He wrapped her in a hug. "I'm glad you stayed." 

Kitty settled her hands over his and leaned back against him. Yeah, she thought, she could have a life of her own. A chance to accomplish something besides maintaining a status quo that no one was happy with. Here, with Lance, seemed like a very good place to start. 

A/N: The song is "You look good in my shirt" by Keith Urban. 


End file.
